This is an archive article published on October 10, 2022
No discount, minister Nirmala Sitharaman paid in full for veggies: vendor
Padma said she has no affinity for any political party. "What politics? We manage to live because we work hard. I never went to school. I grew up right here with my mother, who ran a similar shop. Just that it was opposite the road," she said.
4 min readChennaiUpdated: Oct 10, 2022 06:43 AM IST
The FM visited a street vegetable stall outside Leo Coffee house on Kapaleeshwar Temple's Mada street and was seen casually interacting with the customers and the vendor. (Twitter/@NSitharamanOffice)
“Darshan” at Mylapore Kapaleeshwarar temple during her visit to Chennai may not be unusual for Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, but for M Padma, a 56-year-old roadside vegetable vendor on the busy South Mada street adjacent to the temple, Sitharaman was probably the biggest VIP she had as a visitor on Saturday night.
“She came here around 7.30 pm. There was one more person with her. Then I saw many more people joining and armed men with machine guns. After reaching home every night at 11, I do watch TV news. So, I recognised her by face,” Padma said about Sitharaman, who initially smiled and greeted Padma and then started looking for what she wanted.
Padma said as soon as she noticed a VIP’s presence on the street, she began clearing out some items from the front section. “When VIPs come here, cops tell us to wrap up and leave. I started packing my items quickly but the minister had reached my stall by then and said she wanted to buy things,” Padma stated.
Sitharaman, who was accompanied by Vanathi Srinivasan, BJP MLA from Coimbatore South, wanted pidi karunai (elephant foot yam). “She bought 2 kg pidi karunai and moved to another shop to buy keerai (spinach),” says Suganya Murugesan, Padma’s daughter, who completed her Bachelors in engineering and is now helping her mother.
When asked if she gave a discount to the minister, Suganya said: “Not at all… She paid the price, Rs 200.”
M Padma
“We sold it just like we do to others,” adds Suganya, who recognised Sitharaman right away. “Someone tried to take a selfie with her, but she was stopped by police. A customer who was present at the time asked us to enquire about the price rise and all the difficulties we were facing. After she left, another customer told me that she was about to ask the minister the same question but decided not to because she was afraid it would cause trouble at our shop. She was correct. I thanked her for not asking… If I had a big shop, I would have told the minister about our problems. How can we ask her all of that while we are mere roadside vendors?” said Suganya.
During her day-long visit to Chennai, Smt @nsitharaman made a halt at Mylapore market where she interacted with the vendors & local residents and also purchased vegetables. pic.twitter.com/emJlu81BRh
Padma said she has no affinity for any political party. “What politics? We manage to live because we work hard. I never went to school. I grew up right here with my mother, who ran a similar shop. Just that it was opposite the road,” she said.
Padma said the only consistent change she has been witnessing all along is price hike. “What the minister paid yesterday was Rs 100 for one kg pidi karunai, which was about Rs 60-80 per kg last year. If carrot was Rs 60 a kg last year, it is Rs 160 now. Similarly, all items have become costlier,” she said.
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She said it was her roadside business of vegetables that helped her children study and meet all expenses of the house. “I have married off my two daughters. Suganya is next,” she said.
Arun Janardhanan is an experienced and authoritative Tamil Nadu correspondent for The Indian Express. Based in the state, his reporting combines ground-level access with long-form clarity, offering readers a nuanced understanding of South India’s political, judicial, and cultural life - work that reflects both depth of expertise and sustained authority.
Expertise
Geographic Focus: As Tamil Nadu Correspondent focused on politics, crime, faith and disputes, Janardhanan has been also reporting extensively on Sri Lanka, producing a decade-long body of work on its elections, governance, and the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings through detailed stories and interviews.
Key Coverage Areas:
State Politics and Governance: Close reporting on the DMK and AIADMK, the emergence of new political actors such as actor Vijay’s TVK, internal party churn, Centre–State tensions, and the role of the Governor.
Legal and Judicial Affairs: Consistent coverage of the Madras High Court, including religion-linked disputes and cases involving state authority and civil liberties.
Investigations: Deep-dive series on landmark cases and unresolved questions, including the Tirupati encounter and the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, alongside multiple investigative series from Tamil Nadu.
Culture, Society, and Crisis: Reporting on cultural organisations, language debates, and disaster coverage—from cyclones to prolonged monsoon emergencies—anchored in on-the-ground detail.
His reporting has been recognised with the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Beyond journalism, Janardhanan is also a screenwriter; his Malayalam feature film Aarkkariyam was released in 2021. ... Read More
M Padma