Inflation, like the bogeyman who can be so helpful in putting children to sleep, can be plucked out for a neat purpose. Regardless of whether sarson prices have gone up as much as sarson ka saag, restaurant owners are quoting the ‘inflationary scriptures’ to raise prices of their dishes. The price of ingredients may indeed be rising. But are they going up in sync with the rise in prices on the menu?
Smart as restauranteurs may be, they may not have predicted the tight-fistedness of customers also murmuring ‘inflation’ and staying at home. Which simply means that the government — in whichever form it emerges after today — should allay the fears of the common man, both eaters and restauranteurs. Which, of course, doesn’t mean that the bogeyman doesn’t exist.