As tomato prices continue to soar, heavy measures are being taken to protect the coveted commodity. In an interesting attempt, Ajay Fauji, a Samajwadi Party (SP) worker from Varanasi had hired bouncers to protect his tomatoes. However, this turned out to be a dramatic protest following which the shopkeeper Raj Narayan has been taken into custody based on an FIR filed by a cop. A case has also been registered again Ajay along with Raj's son among others.
The vegetable seller has revealed that Ajay in fact bought tomatoes worth Rs. 500 and started selling them at his vegetable shop as a mark of protest against rising prices. Now, Ajay, along with the two bouncers is on the run.
The guards were deployed at the vendor's cart, which is located in the Lanka area of Varanasi, from 9 am to 5 pm, to keep watch on buyers who might get aggressive while haggling about tomato prices. This protest also involved placing a placard at the shop mentioning the spike in commodity prices over the last nine years, in an apparent reference to the ruling party.
According to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report, the SP worker said, "I kept hearing about arguments over the tomato price among people. People at my shop too tried to haggle. So to put an end to the constant arguments, I decided to deploy bouncers in uniform at my cart."
While the green grocer has remained mum on how much he pays the bouncers, he claims that people are coming in same numbers but because of the guards are less militant about the pricing.
Ajay is currently selling tomatoes in the range of Rs 140 - Rs 160 per kilo. He had earlier cut a tomato-shaped cake in Varanasi to celebrate the birthday of SP president Akhilesh Yadav. For his part, the latter has tweeted the image of this news with the caption, 'The BJP should provide ‘Z-Plus’ security to tomatoes.'