By now you must have been subjected to a lot of memes, especially if you are a Bengali. And, “rosogolla khabe?” would have been just one of them. After all, the tug-of-war between Bengal and Odisha is finally over. On Tuesday, the Geographical Indications (GI) registry announced that the rosogolla had originated in Bengal, leaving a bitter taste in the neighbouring state’s mouth.
A very proud West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee heard the news in London. She immediately took to Twitter and said, “Sweet news for us all. We are very happy and proud that #Bengal has been granted GI status for rosogolla.” While Didi may have found a rosogolla in the Queen’s land to celebrate the victory, the chief minister in Odisha wouldn’t approve of this news.
Naveen Patnaik’s office must have called for an urgent meet. This wasn’t anything less than a war. Soon, the Odisha CMO’s office tweeted that they have applied for the GI tag. Confused?
Well, apparently they now want the GI tag for a variant of rosogolla, the Odishara Rosogolla.
The CMO claimed that the GI tag that Bengal obtained was only for ‘Banglar Rosogolla’. The application to the GI registry dates 14th November said that the Odisha's rosogolla has been offered at Jagannath Temple in Puri since the 12th century.
Odisha Government is in process of obtaining GI tag for Odishara Rasagolla. It originated in #Odisha and is offered at Jagannath Temple as part of religious rituals by people of Odisha since centuries. pic.twitter.com/zk0tOAxj7c— CMO Odisha (@CMO_Odisha) November 14, 2017
Odisha’s Finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera wasn’t happy with either the social media reactions or Didi. "We are yet to submit our application to get GI tag for our rasgulla. A committee is working on the application. Once it is ready, we will apply for the GI tag,” he told The Telegraph.
So did Bengal win a battle that Odisha wasn’t even fighting for?
Let’s do a quick rewind.
The two states’ tussle escalated in June 2015, after Odisha's science and technology minister Pradip Kumar Panigrahi set up committees to trace the origin of rosogolla, as per a report on CNN-News18. They even went a step further to declare 30 July as 'Rosogolla Dibasa' to celebrate its origin.
Bengal wasn’t going to take this lightly. So they decided fight the claim legally and prove that the sweet was created by renowned sweet-maker Nabin Chandra Das in 1868.
Both the states decided to fight head on. Panels were set up. Expert Committees were set up. Evidence was collected. But finally, somehow, Bengal won.
An angry Quora user, a resident of Odisha, said that Patnaik’s state is now giving the news a strange twist. In fact, many in Odisha are calling it ‘fake news’. “What were you doing for last years? What was your panels and committees doing all these years? Why didn’t you challenge/contest the claim of West Bengal?” the Quora user raised these questions.
“Essentially, without contesting and sleeping over it, Odisha govt has allowed West Bengal get GI tag,” he said.
It would be a tragic end to the battle for rosogolla, if Odisha wasn’t even fighting for it. Or, were they?
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