india

Updated: Dec 05, 2019 13:38 IST

The onion, prices of which have spiralled to Rs 180/kg in some states, was at the centre of the Opposition attack on government on Parliament premises on Thursday.

In his dig at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over her remark that she did not eat onions, Congress leader P Chidambaram sought to know if she ate avocados instead. The fruit is priced between Rs 350 – Rs 400 a kg in Indian markets

“I thought the Finance Minister said yesterday she does not eat onions, she is not bothered... What does she eat? Does she eat avocado? She does not eat onions,” Chidambaram, who walked out of jail on Wednesday night, told media in New Delhi.

This comes following Sitharaman’s remarks on Wednesday 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.

The minister dismissed opposition charges about fear factor in the economy and said that that government has taken a series of steps to check the steep rise in onion prices including imports.

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

Meanwhile, the prices of onions shot up to Rs 120-180 in Madurai. Shanmuga Priyan, an onion trader in the region said, “Onion prices have shot up. Customers who were buying 5 kg are now only buying 2 kg”.