I do eat onions, farm minister ducks opposition bouncer

Do you eat onions? A seemingly innocent question had stumped Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a debate in the Lok Sabha.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar faced a similar query from Trinamool member Kalyan Banerjee, but he avoided falling into a trap to escape being a butt of ridicule and derision that Sitharaman had found herself at last week.

“I do eat onions,” an alert Tomar said leading laughter in the Lok Sabha in the otherwise serious debate on the agrarian crisis.

Sitharaman's “I don't eat much garlic and onions” response to a Lok Sabha member's query on whether the minister consumed Egyptian onions led to the opposition draw comparisons between her and Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France. Antoinette, the pre-French Revolution Queen, is known more for asking starving peasants to “eat cake” if they had no bread.

In an hour-long response to the discussion on the agrarian crisis, Tomar listed out steps taken by the government to alleviate the problems faced by the farmers due to unseasonal rains this year.

Tomar said the government was working to make the crop insurance scheme – 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna' – more beneficial for farmers.

He asserted that the implementation of the crop insurance scheme has been “very satisfactory” as over 80% claims made made by farmers have been accepted.

Tomar said the prices of onions had increased across the country due to damage to crop on account of unseasonal rains.

This crop season production of onions was estimated at over 69.9 lakh tonnes, but the actual output was expected to be 53.67 lakh tonnes, a shortfall of 16.23 lakh tonnes.

In a separate statement, the government said it had issued orders to import an additional 12,660 tonnes of onions which were expected to reach Indian shores by the end of this month.

With the latest import order, the total onion imports have been pegged at 30,000 tonnes.