Chennai, Apr 5: Upma, a tasty South Indian cuisine, which can be made with in minutes to fulfill the hungry during curch situations, dominated the proceedings leading to a mouth watering debate in the Tamil Nadu Assembly today.
Ask any random foodie in the State to name one of their least favorite recipes, at least a few would say ‘upma’ (a south Indian recipe made of
broken rice, rava and wheat).
Such is the extent to which the ready to cook recipe exhausts many if not most south Indian foodies. But, the least inspiring food dominated the discourse of the State Assembly leading to lively debates between the treasury benches and the Opposition during the demand for grants for agriculture department.
Former AIADMK Minister OS Manian set the tone for the mouth-watering debate when he said that the farmers of the State expected a sumptuous meal comprising rice, poriyal, aviyal, vadai and payasam, but all that they got in the exclusive agriculture budget was ordinary upma.
Not content with the Budget interpretation of the opposition MLA, State Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam said that even Upma is good. He said the government cannot do magic instantly, it has just begun and they would do wonders for the farmers gradually.
The aroma of the Upma debate, which happened just past-noon, was so teasing that Leader of the House and Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan intervened and asked the AIADMK member to avoid the Upma reference when members were experiencing hunger pangs as the lunch time was nearing.
In another instance of an interesting and lively interaction, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu, reading between the lines of the opposition MLA, when he drew the government’s attention to the overgrowth of “aagaya thamarai’ (water hyacinth, a weed) in the waterbodies in the state.
In a witty comment that had the members in splits, Mr Thennarasu wondered if there was a political connotation behind the MLA’s remark about aagaya thamarai, (as Thamarai in Tamil means Lotus, which is the symbol of AIADMK’s key ally BJP).
