How Politics Triumphs over Good Economics

Yesterday, Modi govt banned Export onions. It's a very bad decision. This move is totally against Onion Farmers and India's Export Market. Firstly, it will deprive farmers of the rightful price for their onion produce....
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which will discourage them from producing onions and secondly, our country could have earned Foreign Exchange through Exports which we won't earn now.

But but but....

What would have happened had the exports not been banned?
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Onion Prices in our domestic markets would have shot up. That's because less quantity of Onions would have been available for Domestic Consumption had govt not banned Export of Onions. Since Supply would have been less than Demand, Onion Prices would have increased faster.
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And we all know how much sensitive we are to Onion Prices. Remember the drama which all of us made just 10 months in November/December of last year due to short term temporary rise in Onion Prices?

As a rule, Government should not interfere in functioning of Markets.
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If Onion Prices rise, then let them rise. If Someone can't afford Onions, they should consume less of it. Did government help onion Farmers when Prices were lowest at Rs 12/kg between 2017 to2019? Then why should they help consumers when there is a temporary rise in Prices?
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But this is where Politics triumphs over Economics. Every Politician knows that number of votes they will lose because of anger of Onion Farmers will be extremely less than number of votes they would lose because of so called High Onion Prices.
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(Just like Nirmala Sitharaman had said that there are only 5000 super rich people who will be affected by increasing Income Tax rate from 35% to 42%). We have so many examples of Governments which failed to control Onion Prices and hence lost power.
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We are an aspiring Super Power. But the issue on the basis of which we vote is still Onion Prices.

Those who always crib about Onion Prices have no moral right to talk about Onion Farmers now. But since I have never ever criticised any govt about High Onion Prices, ...
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.. I am rightfully entitled to criticise govt on behalf of Onion Farmers and which I did. By the way, even Potato Prices are rising currently. So if we are going to create same issue with Potato, then sooner there will be ban on Potato Exports too.
But, who cares?
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