After a video of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying, "I don't eat much of onion-garlic. I come from such a family which doesn't have much to do with onion", surfaced on the Internet, another Union minister has reverberated her statement.
Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Choubey said, "I am a vegetarian. I have never tasted an onion. So, how will a person like me know about the situation (market prices) of onions."
Sitharaman's remarks about personal eating habits came while responding to interruptions by some opposition members at a time when she was speaking on the onion issue.
Sitharaman, who was replying to the debate on the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2019-20, said that onion price surge was due to factors such as a reduction in the area of cultivation and production.
After making a brief admission about not consuming much of onion, Sitharaman elaborated on government's policy for the benefit of onion farmers.
"From 2014, I have been part of some group of ministers which monitors the up's and down in 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.
After facing flak on social media, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that her comments on onion pricing were taken out of context.
