Monday, December 9, 2019

Attacking Inflation: India Style

Inflation in India always seems to hit the basics, so it's stuff people notice: legumes, onions, chickpeas; and who can forget the Great Guar Shortage of 2012?

Anyhoo, here's the latest, from Sputnik:
Onions are bringing tears to Indian consumers’ eyes, as the cost of the vegetable has sky-rocketed across the country. Agitated lawmakers are taking up the issue in parliament.

“Stop eating onions, what is the compulsion to eat them? Our Jain brothers do not eat them. Stop eating onions, stop eating garlic, stop eating meat, everything will be saved," said Mohd. Azam Khan, a lawmaker from the opposition regional Samajwadi Party from northern Uttar Pradesh, in a sarcastic jab at Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who had made light of the situation.
“Don’t eat onions, it gives you bad breath. A queen once said ‘if the public does not have bread to eat then let them eat cake',” he added.
Earlier this week, during a discussion on the issue of rising onion prices in Parliament, Sitharaman said that she simply did not eat onion or garlic - and her statement evoked strong sentiments both from lawmakers and social media users, who slammed her as comments as "insensitive" and "absurd".

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who was released from jail on Wednesday after his arrest in a corruption and money laundering case, joined the parliament in the ongoing Winter Session. He also took a swipe at Sitharaman’s remark that she “don’t eat onion” remark, asking “Does she eat avocado?”...MORE