Subramanian Swamy attacks Sheila Dikshit,says forward trading pushed onion prices

NEW DELHI: Blaming forward trading in agricultural commodities for the rise in onion prices, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today claimed that Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's meeting with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will be of no help.

Terming the meeting as "ridiculous", Swamy claimed that Dikshit's effort was to "save" Congress from the crisis in the wake of forthcoming Assembly polls.

He blamed "anti-national policies" of Congress-led UPA for shooting up of onion prices.

"The fact of the matter is that Delhi Chief Minister has been sleeping over this issue since real culprits responsible for the rise of onion prices is the UPA Union Government's anti-national policies allowing forward trading in agricultural commodities," Swamy said in a release here.

He said that the Delhi Chief Minister's petitions to the Agriculture Minister and to Maharashtra Government on the issue will not give much relief to the public.

She should ask the Union Government to act on the blackmoney stashed in the foreign banks to bring down prices of onion and other commodities, Swamy said.

Earlier in the day, Dikshit held meeting with Pawar and Food Minister K V Thomas on the onion crisis.

"The situation is serious. We are trying to stabilise the prices. We will write to Election Commission to allow us to restart sale of onions through tempos (mobile vans)," she had said after the meeting.

She had alleged that traders and hoarders were taking advantage of the situation.