New Delhi: With a lot of noise being made around the statement of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s ‘I don’t eat onion’ remark, she has responded to a comment made by former finance minister P Chidambaram.
During a debate in the Rajya Sabha a couple of days ago, Sitharaman was seen saying that she doesn’t eat onion and hence it doesn’t bother her. After this comment, the opposition billed her off as ‘elitist’ and being unsympathetic towards people and their problems.
As a reaction to Sitharaman’s statement, former finance minister P Chidambaram had questioned if she eats avocado instead of onion. Now hitting back, Sitharaman took on Chidambaram and said without naming him: “I would like to recall the statements of one of the former finance ministers that when price rise was the issue then, and this I am referring to 2012 when price was on the rise, food inflation was touching the sky and India was among the fragile five economies of the world. I am quoting sir — ‘when the urban middle class can buy a bottle of mineral water for Rs 15 and ice cream for Rs 20, why do they make such a noise about price rise’. And these are the people accusing me of being elitist and government of being elitist. I absolutely condemn this approach,” she said.
