MUMBAI, July 9: Onions rolled in the State assembly today when a determined Congress decided to make an issue of the onions rotting in the State due to a bumper crop this year.When the Opposition finally walked out of the House, several onions had been presented to the Speaker as well as the Chief Minister by Congress members.The issue of support price for the crop was raised by Congress member R R Patil through a calling-attention motion.Even before Patil had started to speak, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Jayant Kasliwal urged the Speaker to ask members to hand over any ``object'' they may have brought into the House. Dilip Walse Patil (Congress), who had onions, had hidden them before the Speaker could make up his mind. One onion however, was spotted by members of the treasury benches near the Chief Minister's seat. Amid shouting from both sides, the Speaker ordered the guilty member to own up. Promptly, Manohar Patwari of the Congress ``apologised'' for having brought an onion into the house.Again there was a squabble over Girish Bapat (BJP) `throwing' the onion to the speaker, Datta Nalawade. Nalawade then clarified that he himself had asked Bapat to `throw' it instead of passing it to him through the House staff.Patil alleged that though 1.25 crore quintals of onion were produced, NAFED had purchased only 80,000 quintals.There was more in store when Cooperation Minister, Jayprakash Mundada, said the State government was seeking the Centre's order to allow NAFED to export onions on a monopoly basis. He said NAFED was buying the onions from the farmers even today, and the State had not shirked its role. The Opposition was not satisfied and kept insisting that the government commit itself to buying the onions. Chief Minister Manohar Joshi then stood up to make a statement.He said he had had a dialogue with Shetkari Sanghatana leaders and the agitationists. He said about 80 per cent of the crop was already in the market (despite the glut) and only 20 per cent was left to be taken care of. In his characteristic style, Joshi complimented Congress member Raibhan Jadhav for his ``constructive'' approach to the problem, ``while all the others were using the plight of the onion growers to gain political mileage.'' He even offered to set up a committee of MLAs to look into the matter ``today''. Dada Jadhavrao of the Janata Dal said that 20 per cent of the crop still to be picked up was decaying with the onset of the rains making it virtually impossible to sell them in the open market.Leader of the Opposition, Madhukar Pichad, after commenting on the ``Chief Minister's sympathy for the farmers,'' shouted in exasperation, ``All we want to know is whether the government will buy the onions''.After about five minutes of slogan shouting, the entire Opposition walked out. As they left, some of them went up to the Speaker and `presented' him onions. R R Patil also gave some to Manohar Joshi. Joshi was seen joking with the Congress members even as the slogan shouting continued. Onions were also rolled from the opposition side to the treasury benches.
