Bali pact was imperfect, needed correction: Sitharaman

New Delhi: Government on Wednesday said it has protected the interest of Indian farmers by ensuring correction in WTO's Bali agreement which was "imperfect".

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also rejected the opposition charge in the Rajya Sabha that India had lost friends in the process of the WTO talks.

"We are very clearly saying, Bali was imperfect ... It was an imperfect agreement. It required a course correction and it was that course correction that this government had engaged in from July," she said replying to clarifications on her statement on "India's stand on WTO" made on November 28.

Asserting that the government was ensuring that India's sovereign right is strengthened, she said, "If there are any corrections to be made in the process, we as a government, representing people of India, have a sovereign duty to do the course correction and ensure that our farmers or any such interests are kept intact and protected."

To opposition charge that India had gone into WTO talks like 'Abhimanyu', she said, "I would like to tell you here in no uncertain terms that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi we have got in as an Abhimanyu but we came out successfully with 160 friends, building on our predecessor, who had 93 friends."

Seeking clarifications on the minister's statement on WTO, opposition members said it was "confusing" and hoped India's interests and sovereignty would not be compromised on the signing of the trade agreement.

Members also sought to know if India had decided to go along with USA and in the bargain lost its friends among the group of developing nations, which India was leading.

Anand Sharma (Cong), who has been a former Commerce Minister accused the minister of "misleading" the House and the country and challenged her saying the work on delinking negotiations on public stock holding for food subsidy purposes was arrived at Bali.

He said the minister has sought to create an impression as if the agreement at Geneva was the outcome of efforts made only by the new government and Prime Minister, which was not the case.

The only difference made is that the deadline for putting in place programmes on food subsidies by seven months from December 2014 to July 2015, he said.