Let them eat apples

Chief minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma says poor people don't eat onions. How true. It would be quite illogical for them to eat onions...

Chief minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma says poor people don8217;t eat onions. How true. It would be quite illogical for them to eat onions or, indeed, any other vegetables at current prices. They don8217;t eat dal or sugar for the same reason or very much else for that matter. But there was actually a time when a poor labourer could afford to sit down to a lunch of dry roti with a raw onion and green chilly. Times have changed. Onion prices have doubled since the beginning of the year; they cost Rs40 a kilo in Delhi and Rs 35 in Mumbai today.

Chillies have gone through the stratosphere as well. So for many months lunch has been dry roti with nothing on the side. It has always been like this for India8217;s poor, making do with less and less when the weather and markets play havoc with food supplies, when politicians and bureaucrats sit on their hands and the public distribution system dries up long before it reaches the village.

Verma is right about onions being beyond the reach of poor people. He is wrong to assume that fact has no major significance. If the humble onion is unaffordable it means nothing more nourishing is going into their diets either. In a country of widespread malnourishment and undernourishment the absence of the onion says many things. It is an indicator of serious trouble on the food front. It proves food prices are out of control. Above all it says the poor are getting poorer.

Things are rather different, however, when it comes to the onion and the chattering classes. Verma could recommend that people eat apples which come cheaper than many vegetables this season. But he would be wiser to say nothing. There is a connection between onions and elections and all politicians know that. High prices are bad news. The belief going back to Indira Gandhi8217;s day is that political fortunes rise or fall with the cost of this staple of all but a few Indian households. For mysterious reasons, no other commodity has an equivalent effect.

It is not altogether surprising, therefore, that the BJP government has been more sensitive than usual about the onion after this year8217;s unseasonal rains destroyed a large proportion of the crop in Maharashtra, the main producer. With assembly elections in Delhi, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan 8212; and possibly Bihar as well only a few weeks away, something had to be done. So NAFED has been persuaded to bestir itself. Onions have been ordered from Holland and should be in the shops by early October. Hopefully, prices will be depressed in good time for the polls.

That will leave the middle classes with one issue less to grumble about on their way to the polling booths. But politicians should not put all their bets on the onion. Sugar has a way of souring the public mood if it is unavailable at low prices during the festival season. And there is the general price level to worry about. Although the wholesale price index hovers around eight per cent, give or a take a few points, the reality is different at retail level which is where most people meet real prices.