Chidambaram is right, says JD(U)

"It is right. What wrong did he say? But Chidambaram is also a supporter of market forces and that is why he used the icecream imagery. How many poor eat icecream?.

"In fact a small truth has accidentally come out from the mouth of a supporter of market forces while he was actually trying to defend them," was the refrain of Sharad Yadav to Chidambaram's comment made yesterday.

The Home Minster had said in Bangalore yesterday that people are prepared to pay Rs 15 for a bottle of water and Rs 20 for a cone icecream, but protest against rise in wheat and rice price.

The BJP had lashed out at Chidambaram for his remarks saying he has shown insensitivity.

Chidambaram today expressed shock and disgust over "deliberate distortion" of his statement in the media about middle class attitude towards price rise, saying he did not "mock or chide" anyone.

Yadav said that he was surprised why noises are being made about prices of food grain and vegetbales only, when prices of all commodities used by common man are on rise.

He, however, rued that even the price rise of foodgrains is not helping the farmers and it is the middlemen who are benefiting.

"Nobody talks about rise in prices of television, refrigerator and car. But when foodgrain prices rise, people make noise. Even in case of foodgrains, the farmer gets a pittance while the middlemen are the actual beneficiaries. It is the government's job to check such middlemen," Yadav said.

The JD-U chief said that so far as difficulty faced by the poor in buying foodgrain is concerned, they can be provided some buffer like foodgrain as wages in MNREGA or the same at lower price on BPL cards.