Humble onions

An MP asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman whether she ate ‘Egyptian onions’. She could have replied with a simple ‘no’. But she, instead, erred in making remarks on her own dietary habits. Her insensitive comment gave an impression that she was ignoring the concerns of millions of poor people in India for whom onion is an essential component of food. (Front page, “FM faces pungent barbs over spiralling onion prices,” Dec. 6).

Manoharan Muthuswamy,

Nabadwip, Nadia, West Bengal