The skyrocketing price of onion in Madhya Pradesh, as in other parts of the country, has given an opportunity to the leaders to resort to 'onion politics' in the election-bound State.
Home Minister Umashankar Gupta on Wednesday took the occasion of Raksha Bandhan to play 'onion politics'. Gupta reached the Raen Basera (shelter home) in Kotra Sultanabad area which falls under his Assembly constituency. He gifted onions to girls and women who tied Rakhi to him.
Gupta supporters were prepared for this and had taken two sacks of onions to the slums, where packaged onions were distributed to the women. The programme continued for an hour.
On earlier occasion this month, Congress party sold onions in the State capital at the rate of Rs 5 per kg, while the women's wing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sold it at Rs 20 per kg. And, this at a time when the commodity is selling at over Rs 60 per kg.
Onion is traditionally classified as a tamsee food that inflames passions. In north India, where it is an essential ingredient in almost all preparations, it is also an index of rising prices of food items. As the number of onions in the shopping basket dwindles, tempers rise, sparks fly and if an election is in the offing, governments must reckon with the possibility of being thrown out.
Rising onion prices had contributed to the fall of the Janata government and the return of Indira Gandhi in 1980. In 1998, exorbitant prices brought tears to the eyes of BJP when they lost Delhi to Sheila Dikshit for 15 years. This time round, onions could tilt the scales against Dikshit. Now, will voters see candidates wearing garlands made of onions, imitating protesters on the streets during the 'onion panic' of 2010IJ