INDIA:Spiralling onion prices across India are once again threatening to trigger a political crisis as several states go to the polls to elect provincial and local legislatures.
Retail onion prices that have increased threefold to Rs24 per kg (about €0.50) in the national capital and other north Indian cities over the past few weeks have revived memories of the 1998 crisis, when a similar escalation ended up determining the political fortunes of at least two of four state governments at the hustings.
Major newspapers and television news networks are highlighting the onion crisis, portraying angry housewives despairing over their price and the poor quality available.
Rain and humidity in onion-producing states, mostly in western and central India, have delayed the harvest, while excessive exports have contributed to the increasing price of an item vital to all forms of cooking in the country.
"The astronomical price of onions is eating into my budget," housewife Shakuntla Devi said. Unless the government takes strict measures to ensure a steady supply of onions it will be catastrophic, she added.
So grave is the onion situation as elections loom in the neighbouring northern states of Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh over the next few weeks, that even prime minister Manhoman Singh is said to be monitoring developments daily.
India has even placed its antagonism with Pakistan on the back burner and is buying 2,000 tons of onions from its neighbour and rival, whose sale it will the subsidise locally.
The humble onion has long been a barometer of national political fortunes. Politicians are ruefully aware that voters generally equate their inability to manage onion prices with an inability to govern well. And the last thing they want is disgruntlement over onions impinging negatively on the ballot box.
The late prime minister Indira Gandhi successfully used high onion prices to defeat the Janata Party coalition in 1980 in a contest she jocularly labelled the onion election.
And in 1998, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party lost polls in Delhi and western Rajasthan state, largely due to its failure to keep onion prices under control.