Chandigarh, Nov 28 (IANS) Even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was delivering a lecture here Saturday on the revival of the Indian economy, Punjabi comedian Jaspal Bhatti was poking fun at the government’s failure to control inflation.
Bhatti set up a stall at the Chandigarh Carnival displaying vegetables and pulses and invited onlookers to throw rings around them and win the costly items as prizes.

“We thank the government and its wrong policies for taking the inflation to new wonderful heights. They have ensured that vegetables, pulses and ghee would become so expensive that they can be also used as decorative items at home,” said Bhatti.

Bhatti added: “Tomatoes are no more a thing to be eaten but a thing to be shown off. Don’t call your wife by names such as sweetheart, sugar or honey. If it comes to the notice of the government, it could impose tax on such sweet talk too.”

Besides senior officials of the administration, Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Gen. (retd) S.F. Rodrigues and his wife Jean Rodrigues also tried their luck by throwing rings on vegetable and packs of pulses.

In this out-of the-box initiative, Bhatti was assisted by his students of Madarts Film School.

Bhatti also requested banks and other financial institutions to grant loans at economical rates to buy vegetables and grocery.

The two-day Chandigarh Carnival started here at the sprawling Leisure Valley grounds Saturday.

Mukherjee was in Chandigarh to give a lecture on ‘Asian Economy After Financial Crisis: An Overview’ at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in Sector 19.