Shedding Onion Tears
It is presently fashionable to shed tears over Onion Prices.
True, Onion prices have gone up, and quite significantly.
Equally true, onion prices were much lower even a few weeks back, and are likely to come back to saner levels in the weeks ahead.
Further, it is fairly obvious that the government could possibly have ensured that the onion prices did not zoom as much as they did.
However, I have a few fundamental questions:
- Prices of all kinds of products are going up all the time - Ranging from fuel, dal, fruits, movie tickets, alcoholic beverages, jewellery, house prices, house rentals, etc. - There is no comparable furore. Why?
- When salaries zoom upwards, there is a perfectly smug silence - the middle class is famously splurging away to glory. One does not hear that "there should be a cap on salary levels" - When salary levels go up, "meritocracy prevails", and "Market forces need to be allowed to play to encourage talent". When such is the case, why do the very same middle class suddenly ignore the very same "Market forces"? Why do they then run to the government asking the "Powers-that-be" to "Immediately intervene"?
- When we want to sell our houses, we wait for the "right prices" - We don't sell it at a lower price out of sympathy for the masses who want affordable housing. When we wish to sell shares, we wait for the "right prices" - we're not accused of "hoarding". When any fuel price hike is announced, immediately there's a long queue of trucks and cars in petrol bunks - Nobody should accuse us of "hoarding". However, when the poor vegetable vendor tries to preserve his/her onions for an extra day or two in the hope of a slightly or significantly higher price we accuse them of virtually criminal hoarding! This despite the fact that onions, being perishable in nature, can't be "hoarded" for too long. Why do we have such double standards?
- Admittedly, a few months back, onion prices were hovering around 10-12 per KG. If the vendors are profiteering now, they must have suffered a significant margin squeeze at that time. Why was there a stunning silence at that time about the plight of the then pathetic condition of the very same vendors who're accused of profiteering now???
I did study Economics at school, college and during my CA & MBA days. Unfortunately, the answers that come to my mind for the above questions are not satisfactory.
I'd be grateful if someone could provide a few answers!!!
Regards,
N
Even now.Mr.Pawar would have left it to the market forces,but for the serious setback suffered by BJP in its earlier rule. People would have also ignored if the price had gone up gradually from 20 to 100 over a period of 2-3 years. The sudden shooting up of prices from 20 to 100 in two months, has only caused so much uproar.
ReplyDeleteBJP also does not know to exploit the situation to their advantage,inspite of being at the receiving end ,a few years back.They should take this to masses and fight for removal of the central govt instead of taking the 2G spectrum matter.
Thirdly,the allowance of indiscriminate exports at some base price and allowing imports with 10% custom duty is unpardonable and naturally there was such a steep increase in prices.Normally we
do not even take a glance at import -export policy of the Govt and for that we had to take a heavy price.
N.Mueralidharan
Thanks for the feedback. You're spot on about the public not bothering enough about export-import policies! N
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