“Sweet” war: After Bengal gets GI for Rasogolla, Odisha plans to win GI tag for its “Rasagolla"

NewsBharati    15-Nov-2017
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Bhubaneswar, November 15: On Monday ending the tug of war of between Odisha and West Bengal GI tag for Rasogolla was aligned to latter. But Odisha did not give up there when West Bengal was celebrating the win. The state is no planning to get GI tag for Rasagolla which is evidently different from Rasogolla. Though the state did not make any claim over Rasogolla but said Bengal won the GI tag for its Rasogolla not the Odia version of the sweet.

Odisha has been claiming for a long time that they use rasagolla for offering prayer to Lord Jagganath. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Pattyanayek has also told that the Odia version of sweet dates back to 800 years in Temple of Puri.

“It has come to our notice that Banglar Rosogolla has been registered with GI on an application filed by the government of West Bengal. This only provides GI tag to the Banglar Rosogolla specific to West Bengal,” said LN Gupta, additional chief secretary of Odisha’s micro, small and medium enterprises department. “Odisha is in the process of obtaining the GI for Odia Rasagola, which dates back to more than 800 years,” added Gupta.

While for years it was known Rasgulla is the original sweet of Bengal, back in 2015 a conflict broke out between Bengal and Odisha. The latter demanded basically it is their sweet. Taking the example from a popular myth over Jagannath Dev, Odisha claimed to have ‘invented’ the sweet. Bengal also did not back up, the state moved forward in the fight with various logical proves. As Rasgulla is made from chenna, the state told Chana or Chena is an original Bengali name for the product. Finally, Bengal won the cultural war as Odisha’s justifications were not practical.

The geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which correspond to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, is made according to traditional methods or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin. India enacted GI in 2003.