PM’s WTO remark against UPA false: Congress

The opposition party to raise the issue in Parliament on Monday.

Refuting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion that the UPA government had compromised on the issue of food security at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Congress has said it will raise the matter in Parliament on Monday.

“The statement of Mr. Modi, his claim of standing up for food security in the interest of farmers by taking up a stand in opposition to the one taken by the UPA government is misleading and given with the objective to confuse the people,” former Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in a statement.

Mr. Sharma said the Prime Minister’s remarks that India had disregarded the interests of farmers and the right to food security at the WTO’s Bali Ministerial were “astonishing, factually incorrect and false.” He said that on the issue of the WTO, Mr. Modi, in his address to the BJP’s National Council meeting on Saturday, had contradicted statements that Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman made in Parliament last week.

Mr. Sharma is the Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha and had led the Indian delegation at the WTO’s Bali Ministerial meet. “When both the Houses are in session, it becomes a question of privilege of the members to know what the truth is. Which of the two is true?”

Without naming the UPA government, Mr. Modi on Saturday said “those who sought votes in the name of food security, signed the agreement [sacrificing the interests of poor people].” He said the NDA government “chose” to take a tough stand in the recent WTO talks to protect the interests of the poor people of the country rather than to look for good publicity in the international media.

Mr. Sharma said the “Prime Minister needed to be reminded that it was India’s strong and uncompromising stance that forced the issue of procurement of food grains for public stock holding and livelihood countries on the Bali WTO agenda despite stiff opposition from the U.S., European Union and other developed countries.”

He said India had succeeded in forming a coalition of developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, forcing the developed countries to cede ground and agree to negotiate a permanent solution to change the dated WTO rules which India rejected at Bali as inherently flawed and unjust.

“India also secured for itself and other developing countries protection from any challenge at the WTO for any breach until a negotiated permanent solution was put in place,” Mr. Sharma said.