WAR IN WEST ASIA DECIDING MENU FOR FASTING PLATES

THE global energy crisis caused by war in West Asia is having an unusual fallout.

- SIDHARTH MISHRA

We are halfway through the Chaitra Navratri, a period when a large number of people observe fasts, the cost of food for fasting (not to be confused with fast food) is sky rocketing. Items such as potato chips, sabudana papads, roasted peanuts, and other vrat (fast)-specific eatables have either become expensive or disappeared from shop shelves.

What appears at first to be aseasonal shortage is in fact linked to a larger crisis, the disruption in fuel supply, particularly LPG, which is used for preparing and packaging these items. Traders point out that the shortage is not because raw materials are unavailable, but because production has slowed.

Small manufacturers and food processors, who depend heavily on LPG cylinders, are unable to procure fuel at normal prices. With domestic cylinders difficult to obtain and commercial cylinders becoming prohibitively expensive, production has been cut down, and the shortage is now visible in the market. Thus, a war thousands of kilometres away is determining what reaches the fasting plate of a household in Delhi.