HAJIPUR: Bihar, which is facing a pinching shortage of onions is witnessing bizarre ways of protest against its price hike.
A day after two persons were seen selling onions wearing helmets for fear of being mob-attacked, volunteers and common people at Hajipur about 19 kms from Patna, performed a 'havan' (a religious ritual of offering holy herbs in fire) to bring the skyrocketing price of onions down, on Sunday.
Initiated by a youth leader-cum-social activist Dheeraj Roy, hundreds of people sat together around the 'havan kund' (fire altar) and performed the ritual with a basket of onion kept at the spot.
"God is in every thing-living or non-living. We have taken onion as a symbol of God residing in it and have performed havan before it to propitiate his pleasure on us," Roy said.
He said that onions across the state are being sold at Rs 80 to Rs 100 per kg.
"It has become more precious than the food which are offered in bhog to idols of Hindu deities. Thus, onion is omnipotent but not omnipresent," he said.
Similarly, prayers were also offered in Muzaffarpur on Sunday by hundreds of women seeking God's intervention in bringing down the sky-high rates.