Tehseen Poonawalla protests with wheelchair, onion; detained by police

Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla was detained by police at Vijay Chowk here on Thursday while he was protesting against Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the issue of onion prices.

Poonawalla was protesting outside the Parliament Complex with a wheelchair and a sack of onions. He said the unique protest symbolises that common people are unable to afford onion due to soaring prices.

On Wednesday, Sitharaman said that she doesn't eat much of onion or garlic and hails from a family where these two vegetables are not much in use.

"The statement given by Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha was shameful. She should apologize from the country for this. The government should tell who is earning money in between and the money is not reaching to farmers. Onion is being imported from Turkey. The concept of the wheelchair is that a normal person can't even buy onions," he told reporters here.

Her remarks about personal eating habits came while responding to interruptions by some opposition members at a time when she was speaking on the onion issue.

"I don't eat much of onion-garlic. I come from such a family which doesn't have much to do with onion", she said.