NEW DELHI, Dec 24, (AFP) -Food and politics have always been closely intertwined in the developing countries of South Asia, but when national taste buds are at stake the relationship can become especially volatile.
A shortage of onions in India, a dearth of coconuts in Sri Lanka and the soaring price of cooking oil in Bangladesh are currently posing a serious challenge to the governments of all three countries. The issue is more cultural than nutritional.
Nobody's going to starve in India because of an onion shortage, but their food is either going to taste different or it's going to cost them more to keep it tasting the same -- and that makes a lot of people unhappy.
Similarly, the coconut -- both its flesh and milk -- is what gives Sri Lankan cuisine its unique flavour, tempering spices and enriching sauces.
The current “onion crisis” in India has seen prices triple to nearly 80 rupees a kilogramme (88 cents a pound), triggering allegations of hoarding, official incompetence and price-ramping by traders.
The humble onion has a surprisingly weighty track record of political influence. In January 1980, Indira Gandhi exploited rising onion prices to storm back to power, appearing at campaign rallies waving huge strings of them with the message that a government that can't control onion costs has no right to govern.
And in 1998, a six-fold surge in the cost of onions was held partly responsible for the electoral defeat of the ruling Delhi state government.
Already under pressure over food inflation and wary of historical precedent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has stepped in forcefully, banning onion exports, scrapping import taxes and even trucking in onions from arch-rival Pakistan.
In Sri Lanka, the government has also been forced to step in to alleviate a severe coconut shortage, banning the felling of coconut palms and, for the first time, arranging nut imports from India and Malaysia.
Coconuts are as indispensable to Sri Lanka's national cuisine as onions are to India's and shortages can have a similarly dramatic political impact.
In Bangladesh, the problem is a surge in the price of cooking oil, especially the edible palm oil used by most families. |
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