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Soaring onion price: Congress MPs stage protest in Parliament premises

Speed News Desk | Updated on: 5 December 2019, 14:53 IST
Congress MPs stage protest in Parliament premises

Congress MPs, including P Chidambaram, who is out on bail after 106 days in jail, Adhir Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, and others on Thursday staged a protest the Parliament premises on against rising onion prices.

The Congress lawmakers staged the protest holding banners and shouting slogans demanding that the Modi-led government reduce the prices and 'stop harassing' the poor, the Congress MPs.


The Congress leaders protested with a basket full of onions in the Parliament premises.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was released from Delhi's Tihar Jail yesterday after being granted bail in the INX Media money laundering case, on Thursday reached Parliament to attend the ongoing Winter Session. He also joined his party colleagues in the protest against the soaring onion price.

"Finance Minister said yesterday that she doesn't eat onions, so what does she eat? Does she eat avocado?" Chidambaram said. 

 

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that she doesn't eat much of onion or garlic and hails from a family where these two vegetables are not much in use. Her remarks about personal eating habits came while responding to interruptions by some opposition members at a time when she was speaking on the onion issue.

"I don't eat much of onion-garlic. I come from such a family which doesn't have much to do with onion", she said.

Prior to it, Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule had raised the issue of NPAs and onion farmers.

"Why has the production of onion gone down? We export rice and milk and so many other products. Onion grower is a small farmer and he really needs to be protected", Sule had said.

After making a brief admission about not consuming much of onion, Sitharaman elaborated on the government's policy for the benefit of onion farmers.

After making a brief admission about not consuming much of onion, Sitharaman elaborated on government's policy for the benefit of onion farmers.

"From 2014, I have been part of some group of ministers which monitors the up's and down in onion market. Sometimes when there is a surplus of the crop, we have also facilitated by giving support to those people who want to import. I have overnight passed orders for helping with 5 to 7 per cent assistance for exporting", she said.

Sitharaman, who was replying to the debate on the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2019-20 also said that onion price surge was due to factors such as a reduction in the area of cultivation and production.

Also Read: I don't eat much of onion, says Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha

First published: 5 December 2019, 12:19 IST