Zee Research Group/Delhi

At a time when vegetable prices, especially that of onions have hit the roof, India’s mainstream political parties are busy in a blame-game. The common man has little to choose from in term of solutions from politicos who appeared primarily preoccupied in onion politics.

Congress’s Salman Soz, BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, and Left’s Nilotpal Basu, told Zee Media’s #bbv Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’s ‘India Ka Agenda’ show that inflation was here to stay.

For Soz, the price rise was due to supply side constraints and export-import imbalance. Naqvi, stuck to his party line, holding UPA2’s “corrupt” policies responsible for high inflation. Basu, held both BJP and Congress responsible for the common man woes blaming the two parties for their “neo liberal” economic policies.

Soz, however, argued that the UPA govt wasn’t happy about the price rise of onions. He blamed the unpredictable monsoons and the dilapidated supply chain system of the country for the price rise of onions.

He also blamed hoarders and black marketers for orchestrating the problem. BJP’s Naqvi countered him saying that the UPA-2 govt had promised to rein in inflation within a span of 100 days after coming to power and that the production of food grains had improved in the country in recent years.

Naqvi further alleged that the govt has forged a “covert” relationship connection with hoarders which is leading to record high inflation in the market.

CPI (M)’s Basu said that the govt could have intervened timely to control the problem.

Economist SK Dutta countered that the govt should have imported onions beforehand. He also added that the quality of food grains being imported into the country was of inferior quality.

Datta averred that inflationary problems often arose in a country with a corrupt govt at the centre. He argued that inflation had played an important role in bringing down the GDP growth rate of the economy.

Offering solutions, Soz added that the problem could be controlled if the government and the private sector invested generously in better supply chain infrastructure all across the country. Naqvi claimed if elected to power his government would bring down the prices in a big way in a span of two weeks by going after the hoarders.

‘India Ka Agenda’ airs every Saturday 10pm