Congress leader Anand Sharma on Thursday accused Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of “deliberately misinforming” Parliament over India’s position at the 2013 WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali, alleging that she was attempting to justify a “sellout” interim trade deal with the United States by distorting facts.In a strongly worded statement, the former Commerce and Industry Minister rejected Sitharaman’s charge that the Congress-led UPA government had compromised India’s food security at the WTO meeting. He said her remarks were “false and incorrect” and “contradict the facts on record and WTO’s official statement”.“It is unfortunate and shocking that the Finance Minister has deliberately misinformed Parliament on the agreements reached at the ninth WTO Ministerial meeting in Bali in December 2013. In her desperation to justify and defend the sellout interim trade deal with the US, she has levelled an unfair allegation that the Congress-led UPA government had sold out India’s right to food security at the WTO meeting in Bali. This is false and incorrect and contradicts the facts on record and WTO’s official statement,” Sharma said.On Wednesday, Sitharaman, responding to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, had alleged that the UPA government surrendered India’s interests before international organisations, including the WTO, and “sold” the interests of the poor, farmers and even the country.Sharma countered that it was India’s “strong and uncompromising stance” under the UPA that forced the issue of public stockholding for food security onto the Bali agenda despite resistance from the US, the European Union, the Cairns Group and other developed nations.“The issue of public stockholding for food security was actually forced by India at the Bali Ministerial meeting and the same were secured and protected,” he asserted.He said India fought tenaciously and brought together a coalition of developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, compelling developed nations to agree to negotiate a permanent solution to what he described as outdated and unjust WTO rules.According to Sharma, India also secured protection for itself and other developing nations from any legal challenge at the WTO until a negotiated permanent solution was reached. Quoting his statement made in both Houses of Parliament on December 13, 2013, Sharma said, “The Bali Ministerial was a resounding victory of countries of the global south.”He said that the peace clause on public stockholding, spearheaded by India, placed the issue beyond challenge under the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Understanding and safeguarded India’s minimum support price programmes from legal action.Sharma further referred to Sitharaman’s 2015 remarks, when she was Commerce Minister, calling her characterisation of the Bali agreement as a temporary peace clause “factually incorrect and political dishonesty”.He noted that despite assurances that a permanent solution would be concluded before December 2015, “despite a lapse of 12 years from the Bali Ministerial Declaration and 11 years from the General Council decision, a permanent solution to the problem is yet to be arrived at.”