When tomatoes turned red-hot last week, the opposition parties in Tamil Nadu were curiously busy elsewhere. The AIADMK was staring at a court verdict that rendered the election of Theni constituency, which yielded the solo MP for the party, null and void a few months ahead of the general elections. Yet another setback for the OPS camp, now floating rudderless in the political wilderness.
Like in many other states, the distribution of cash and liquor during elections is no big news in Tamil Nadu; the suppression of assets and liabilities of candidates is only a court matter. The BJP is salivating at the prospect of picking some low-hanging fruits in 2024 as the buzz on Modi’s mega plan to contest from Tamil Nadu gets louder. In most cases, it is an illusion, though.
While the party hopes to cash in on the spillover effect of ‘Vanakkam Chennai’, the ruling DMK finds it a golden opportunity to teach the PM a lesson for his anti-federal policies. The TN BJP chief’s unkind call last week to governors to leave the political arena for politicians seems to have fallen on deaf ears; governor RN Ravi raised serious concerns about how the linguistic minorities struggle to learn their mother tongue in the state and squarely blamed it on the ‘skewed’ state policies when a little-known forum brought it to his attention. As usual, Chennai’s newsrooms resonated like an animated beehive.
Everyone treats the wild swing in tomato prices as seasonal. Two months ago, its fate was to get rotten by the roadside, and now one is forced to keep it safe from local thieves. For most vegetable ingredients that go into making your daily sambar, Rs 100 per kg is the new normal. Shallots, green chilies, and beans have all hit a quick century. The best performer of the season is, of course, the tomato, and obviously, it is conspicuously missing from the traditional ‘rasam’.
Tomatoes are no longer sandwiched between potatoes and cucumbers in burgers; in salads, they have done a Houdini’s Act, like what onions did last year. Restaurants and food outlets have threatened to hike prices if the prices remain high for another week; some fast-food chains have taken tomatoes off their purchase lists, blaming it on the supply disruption. High vegetable prices are spiking national inflation ahead of the elections.
The swing in vegetable prices is a slap in the face for the government. Just a month ago, farmers were dumping tomatoes on the road as prices crashed even below transportation costs. In Madurai, tomatoes were sold at less than Rs 10 per kg in April. Heavy losses forced many farmers to do a viability check on tomato farming as the crop fetched Rs 2–Rs 5 per kg.
In Nashik’s Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) market, a 20-kg crate managed to fetch Rs 30. Then comes the next season. Tomato prices shoot up to Rs 130–Rs 150 per kg. Everyone blames it on the unusually high temperatures and unseasonal rains. Its arrival in big markets has dropped substantially. Is there any hoarding? Are we in the throes of another black-market manipulation? No one seems to have an answer.
Worried about the backlash, governments immediately scrambled for a quick solution. In Andhra Pradesh, the agriculture marketing department is selling tomatoes at Rs 50 per kg at Rythu Bazars located across the state. The Tamil Nadu government has begun a discount sale through the PDS shops in Chennai for Rs 60 per kg. For the busy opposition, it is hardly a political issue.
How long will rasam be made without tomatoes in it? Nobody has an answer.
Anto T Joseph
Resident Editor, Tamil Nadu
anto@newindianexpress.com @AntoJoseph