Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla protests on onion price surge

A screengrab from the video posted by ANI on Twitter

New Delhi: Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla was detained at Vijay Chowk for protesting against the sharp rise in onion prices across the country and demanding an apology from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

While being dragged by the police, Poonawalla can be heard screaming, "Nirmala Sitharaman should apologise! Why isn't she apologising?"

On being detained, Poonawalla is heard asking, "Kya galat kiya hai maine? (What did I do wrong?) while being taken inside the police van.

Earlier on Wednesday, while speaking on the issue, Sitharaman said she does not eat much of onion or garlic and hails from a family where these two vegetables are not much in use. "I don't eat much of onion-garlic. I come from such a family which doesn't have much to do with onion", she said.

After admitting about not consuming much of onion, Sitharaman explained the government's policy to benefit onion farmers.

"From 2014, I have been part of some group of ministers which monitors the ups and down in the onion market. Sometimes when there is a surplus of the crop, we have also facilitated by giving support to those people who want to import. I have overnight passed orders for helping with 5 to 7 per cent assistance for exporting", she said.

Sitharaman, who was responding to the debate on the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2019-20 also said that onion price surge was due to factors such as a reduction in the area of cultivation and production.

(With inputs from ANI)

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