Nirmala Sitharaman makes a teary remark on soaring onion prices in Parliament

New Delhi : In the course of discussions on MUDRA loans and soaring onion prices in the Parliament on Thursday, Union Finance Minister made a shocking remark with which she had invited troubles for her.

Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule was slamming Nirmala Sitharaman for failing in controlling the price of onions in the markets while putting forward the plight of small-time onion farmers.

“Why has the production gone down?” asked Sule. She went on to say that onion farmers are small-time farmers and asked whether they get the minimum support price when the onion prices go low.

In several states, the prices of onion have gone above Rs 100 per Kg. And to tackle it, the government has also started importing onions from Egypt. Sule said, “I’m not happy eating Egyptian onions.”

As Sitharaman stood to answer this question, some leader in the house asked, "Do you eat onion?"

Sitharaman replied that she doesn’t eat a lot of garlic and onion. “I come from a family that didn’t care much for onions.”

Congress, however, has used Sitharaman’s line to throw jibes at the BJP government. Former minister, who is now out on bail, P. Chidambaram addressed a press conference on Thursday and said that Sitharaman was India’s version of Marie Antoinette, who has often attributed the phrase that sums up the distance between the ruler and the ruled: ‘let them have cake.’

Chidambaram asked if Sitharaman ate avocados instead of onions: “Finance Minister said yesterday that she doesn’t eat onions, so what does she eat? Does she eat avocado?”