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 Posté le: Sam Sep 28, 2013 2:31 am Sujet du message: Onion as kingmaker |
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{Onion as kingmaker }
THE SPECTER of relentlessly rising onion prices is haunting Indian politics yet again. As the market rate of the odoriferous veggie quadrupled over the last month, touching Rs 90 a kg in some parts of the country, it has become a hot button issue not only for the haus frau,[url=http://www.ugg-boots-sale.org]ugg outlet[/url], but for economists and policymakers as well.The liliaceous plant, whose bulb is a staple in Indian curries, has pushed incensed women and men onto the streets, giving the ruling UPA government sleepless nights. After all, the party knows only too well that the potent commodity can be a political game changer. Its rival — Opposition party (BJP) — had to suffer an ignominious defeat in the 1998 Delhi and Rajasthan Assembly elections, all because of its government’s failure to curb the northbound prices of onions. Ironically, now the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance finds itself in the same pernickety position. If the BJP comes to power in 2014, and Narendra Modi becomes Prime Minister, the humble onion will have played a significant part in it. Food inflation has been the top concern of voters on every opinion poll and costly onions symbolise price rise that affects the poorest of poor.Having been stung by the onion once, the BJP is trying to cash in on the current crisis. Its activists are hawking onions across Delhi for a third of the market prices, even gifting bagfuls to women on festive occasions.Meanwhile, at roadside eateries, dhaba owners are scrimping on serving the traditional meal accompaniment of sliced onions. One vendor was even shot at by a customer at a café in Uttar Pradesh recently when the latter discovered that he had been served an onion-less omelet. Furious, despite the vendor pleading that he couldn’t afford the pricey onions, the customer whipped out a pistol — Bollywood style — and shot at him.Small wonder, worried shopkeepers are guarding bags of onions from thieves with their lives. Last week,[url=http://www.ugg-boots-sale.org]cheap ugg[/url], a truck on the Delhi-Jaipur highway was hijacked by robbers. Its precious cargo? Forty tonnes of onions!Irate consumers are taking to the airwaves to complain. Some radio jockeys are even offering their witty listeners onions as prizes. There’s even talk of Onion Funds being launched by savvy traders with the motto ‘Sell Gold, Buy Onions’ even as parents are contemplating to deck their daughters out in the choicest onion garlands for the upcoming wedding season.Facebook, Twitter and SMS are all abuzz with onion jokes. One social networking site is flooded with posts asking users to vote,[url=http://www.ugg-boots-sale.org]cheap ugg[/url]s, which would reach the 100-mark first — onion, petrol or the rupee? There are also jokes on how politicians are depositing quintals of onions instead of money in their Swiss bank accounts.Ironically, things have come to such a pass despite India being the world’s second largest producer of onions after China. Yet, it has the third-lowest yield per hectare among the 20 biggest producers. Officials say levitating prices are a result of a cocktail of ingredients — like hoarding by unscrupulous hoarders and outdated rules that govern wholesale markets giving middle men excessive power in deciding prices and restricting farmers’ access to trade.With angry lawmakers protesting in Parliament, a worried and election-bound Delhi state government has started special counters across the city to sell onions at subsidized rates. Security guards have been deployed to control the angry crowds. The central government — which has enforced a ban on onion exports – is even allowing imports from its bete noire Pakistan.But voters have a way of settling scores — something the political class knows too well. Be it the late Pramod Mahajan on whom agitated Nashik farmers had hurled onions in 2000 or the BJP that met its nemesis in Delhi and Rajasthan in 1998, onions do have the power to deep-fry politicians.Despite these failings, the Congress flaunting ‘achievements’ like the Food Security Bill continues to confidently project its ‘aam-aadmi’ agenda as a centerpiece of its election campaign. In other words, the “luminous flasks” that cut across class barriers will continue to symbolise the Indian political class’s apathy towards its people, the profiteering traders and the loss-making farmers. And this time round, onions will likely give the BJP a chance to take sweet revenge on a lachrymose Congress. The latter’s tears of grief just might turn out to be Modi’s tears of joy!Neeta Lal is a Delhi-based journalist var google_adnum = 2; function google_ad_request_done(google_ads) {var s = '';var i;if (google_ads.length == 0) { return; }s+='
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