Vegetable vendor hires bouncers to guard his Rs 160/kg tomatoes

In Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi city, a vegetable vendor, Ajay Fauji, has hired bouncers to keep the customers at bay to avert public unrest and violence due to soaring prices of tomatoes nationwide. The PTI video surfaced on Twitter on Monday, July 9, where the vendor expressed his compulsion to hire bouncers to protect his vegetables. 

He said, “I have hired bouncers because the tomato price is too high. People are indulging in violence and even looting tomatoes. Since we have tomatoes in the shop, we don't want any arguments, so we have bouncers here. Tomatoes are selling for Rs 160 per kg. People are buying 50 or 100 gms”. 

In the past few days, tomato prices have increased drastically, putting a lot of burden on people. The Indian Express’s data chart shows that the cost of tomatoes has surpassed the cost of petrol in some of the cities in India. 

Fauji added that the consumption pattern of consumers is dropping due to this sudden increase in the prices of tomatoes. 

On the other hand, a smartphone shop owner in Madhya Pradesh has apparently decided to offer free-of-cost tomatoes and smartphones. He remarked, "Since tomatoes have become expensive and we want to offer something to customers due to increased competition in the market, we decided to offer tomatoes with smartphones". 

According to The Economic Times report on Saturday, July 8, The Reserve Bank of India’s ‘Development Research Group’ study found that increasing tomato prices could easily imperil the headline inflation forecast in the Indian market. The study shows tomatoes, potatoes, and onions are one of the significant contributors to headline volatility even though they are a small portion of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)