Onions are an important ingredient in the majority of hot and spicy Indian delicacies, but have become more of a luxury item recently due to skyrocketing prices.
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently addressed the issue of surging onion prices in parliament.
In her statement, Sitharaman said that, “I don't eat much onion and garlic. I come from such a family which doesn't have much to do with onions.”
Many netizens are calling her comments “absurd” and “insensitive".
Meme-makers were quick to act and soon flooded Twitter and Instagram with a string of hilarious content, targeting the finance minister.
Several hashtags relating to the subject, including -- #SayItLikeNirmalaTai, #OnionPrices and #NirmalaSitharaman are trending on Twitter.
Angry Indians resorted to sarcasm to express their disappointment with the current condition of the country’s economy, which is being "taken care of" by Sitharaman.
India’s opposition party Congress also joined in the meme-fest.
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who was released on bail after over 100 days on Wednesday and joined the parliament first time today in the ongoing Winter Session, also took a dig at the current Finance Minister Sitharaman’s “don’t eat onion” comment with a question, “Does she eat avocado?”
Amid the rising onion crisis in the country, the government on Wednesday revealed that state-run trading firm MMTC has already placed another onion import order of 4,000 tonnes from Turkey, with deliveries expected by mid-January.
Previously, 17,090 tonnes of onions were contracted from Egypt and Turkey.