PM Modi’s gift fits a long tradition of political candy

Pontrefact cakes are liquorice sweets. They are small and black with a medicinal-sweet taste which liquorice lovers adore, and everyone else hates.

Pontrefact cakes are liquorice sweets. They are small and black with a medicinal-sweet taste which liquorice lovers adore, and everyone else hates. For almost 400 years, they have been made and stamped with a special design. On August 15, 1872, when Pontrefact became the first place in the UK to hold an election by secret ballot, the sweet’s stamp was used to seal the wax of the ballot box until the votes were counted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gift of Parle’s Melody toffees to his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni elicited reactions ranging from amusement at this embrace of name blending (Meloni + Modi = Melody), surprise at toffee as a diplomatic gift, and a rush to buy shares in Parle (except it isn’t listed, so an entirely unrelated Parle company got the benefit).

But as Pontrefact cakes show, sweets and politics have a long connection. Because sugar is cheap and can be made into many forms, even printed with messages, it’s easy to use sweets as appealing, branded giveaways. Political gifts can be controversial, but sweets are usually safe. Bengal’s mishtimakers have been making sandesh with party symbols.

US presidential campaigns feature candidate-branded candies (after the last election, Kamala Harris chocolates were reportedly selling at a brutal 75 per cent discount). Tim Richardson in Sweets: a History of Temptation lists patriotic British sweets of the past: “Alma Drops and Sebastopol Balls in the Crimean War and Buller’ s Bullets, Kruger’s Favourites, Khaki Toffees and Transvaal Toffee in the Boer War.”

Ronald Reagan made jelly beans famous. It started when he ran for governor of California in 1966. He was trying to quit smoking and started eating the candies instead. He took his addiction to the White House, ordering three and a half tons for his inauguration, in patriotic red, white and blue colours. The makers, Jelly Belly Company, made a new blueberry flavour to go along with red cherry and white coconut ones. It became one of their most popular beans. Reagan kept big jars of jelly beans for people to help themselves. He joked that it helped him understand their character: Would they grab a handful or carefully pick just the colours they wanted?

Donald Trump is known to have aides on special candy bowl duty, instructing them to “bring me the poison” when he needs a sugar fix. His favourite is Starburst soft fruit candies, and he has used them in his characteristic bullying tactics and love of sycophancy. In a contentious meeting with then German chancellor Angela Merkel during a 2018 G7 summit, he is said to have thrown two candies on a table, saying, “Don’t say I never give you anything.”

Kevin McCarthy, a senior Republican leader, noted how Trump preferred the red (cherry) and pink (strawberry) flavours, so he made up a special box of just those flavours to give to the president.

The most enduring Republican candy connection is in the US Senate. Eating is prohibited in the Senate, yet in 1965, California’s Republican senator George Murphy started keeping candy in a drawer in his desk and distributed it to colleagues. Perhaps he got away with it because sweets were seen to serve a purpose — giving sugary energy during long sessions, or helping soothe throats for speeches. After Murphy retired, his colleagues continued keeping candy, with different senators taking on the job of keeping the drawer filled. This may have originally been a non-partisan tradition, but now, Democrat senators are said to have their own candy desk.

In 1855, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexico’s former president, was forced into exile. Settling in New York, he was in need of money, so he imported Mexican chicle, the elastic substance of the sapodilla (chikoo) tree, to develop as a rubber alternative. This didn’t work, but an American associate noticed that the Mexicans liked chewing it. He added sugar and peppermint flavouring, calling it Chiclets. It was a hit and the first modern chewing gum, making it the candy with the deepest political connection.