No Pakistanis Please

In the face of a price crisis, all that Maharashtra’s parties seem to be doing is play politics with onions

Onions bring tears to our eyes. With the price of onions skyrocketing in Maharashtra, people are being forced to reconsider their traditional ways of cooking food. Homemakers are thronging markets looking for cheap onions. But they return home disappointed, either empty handed or with too little of their favourite kanda. Matters have been compounded by illegal hoarding.

Maharashtra contributes about 30 per cent to India’s total onion production. Its share in the country’s onion exports is about 85 per cent. But the crop is rather shabbily treated in the state, and there is an appalling lack of crop planning. Not only is there an onion glut in the state almost every year, the onion farmer is able to sell, at best, only 50 per cent of his produce. The rest is either destroyed or lost for one reason or the other before it reaches the bazaars.

However, forced by the current crisis, the Centre has turned its attention to onions and decided to import some from Pakistan. This measure should have reduced prices from the prevailing Rs 85 to about Rs 30 a kg. However, selling these Pakistani onions in Maharashtra is easier said than done. The Shiv Sena, with its opposition to everything from Pakistan, has threatened to destroy these onions and vowed not to let them into the state’s markets. Presently, about 200 tonnes of Pakistani onions are rotting at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

Sources say that traders are not coming forth to pick up the onions, as they fear reprisals from the Sena’s hooligans. The Sena’s shakhas have been entrusted with the job of ensuring that Pakistani onions do not reach Maharashtra’s markets. Since onions have become scarce in most households, the Sena’s opposition only adds to the people’s sufferings, though in markets run by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), its hamals (loaders) too have decided that they will not unload Pakistani onions from the trucks. Only Maharashtrians are employed as loaders, and a majority of them are loyal to the Sena.

“Why should we take onions from Pakistan? They send their terrorists and we buy onions from them. What should Indian farmers do with their own onions? The Shiv Sena will not allow it,” says Uddhav Thackeray to the media.

Pakistani onions are considered inferior to their Indian counterparts, but are also less expensive. However, according to APMC sources, the price of onions in Pakistan’s domestic bazaars has seen a marked increase, due to imports by India. To bring down the Indian price of onions, Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar has announced a ban on onion exports till 15 January. This move has managed to bring down prices, even if slightly, in other parts of the country. However, in Maharashtra prices continue to remain high.

According to Ashok Walunj, director of APMC, Vashi (the wholesale grain and vegetable market for Mumbai) there is little supply from the onion-producing areas of Nasik and Lasalgaon. This situation was precipitated by the extended monsoon last year and worsened by rains that continued even in the first week of December.
In the face of this crisis, all that Maharashtra’s parties seem to be doing is playing politics with onions. The Shiv Sena-BJP-led opposition is demanding compensation for onion farmers. The ruling Congress-NCP, it seems, is not too worried by such exhortations, as no elections are due in the near future. Such is the apathy that one Congress MLC has made light of the situation by sending out SMSes that the Income Tax Department is keeping a close watch on those who buy onions.

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