By IANS,
New Delhi : The Congress Tuesday said it wanted the truth in the controversy over Wal-Mart’s lobbying for allowing foreign equity in retail trade in India to come out and termed as unfortunate the opposition’s disruption of parliament on the issue.
“We want the truth to be out. It is unfortunate that the parliament is being stalled… these allegations are baseless,” Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi told reporters.
He said the government was the best judge of the situation and would announce a probe into the issue but it should not be made time-bound.
Noting that the report had surfaced in the US and the alleged lobbying also took place in that country, Alvi said the international supermarket chain had denied that any such lobbying took place in India.
“Why does the opposition take into account their (Wal-Mart) statement that no lobbying took place in India,” he asked.
Alvi also said the fresh controversy will have no impact on the policy to allow 51 percent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, which got parliament’s nod last week.
Criticising the BJP for disrupting the house to score “brownie points”, union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari earlier said the party should make public any evidence it has on the issue.
“If the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) or anybody else has any evidence it should have been made public. Those allegations should have been verified,” he told reporters.
The issue saw the BJP stalling proceedings in both houses of parliament Tuesday.
Tewari said stalling parliament was not in the interest of the country. “This is what the BJP has been doing in the last three years.”