NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday said it will act against Wal-Mart if any violation by the global retail giant to gain entry into the Indian market is established.
"If at all any investigation does conclusively establish that there has been a violation of Indian laws... law will take its own course," information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said in a TV interview.
The minister also said the time had come for India to have a law modeled on the lines of the US Lobbying Disclosures Act, arguing that such regulation would make it compulsory for political lobbyists to be registered and make periodic disclosures of amount spent.
Tewari, however, clarified that he was making the suggestion in an "individual capacity".
"Time has come. We need to put in place a statutory architecture which makes these declarations essential, even legislators, MPs and people in the executive, if they have in the past or continue to represent a particular company or a group of company, that interest must be declared even before they participate in a debate," Tewari said.
At the same time, the minister sought to make a difference between lobbying and illegal gratification.
"How can you be certain that lobbying automatically translates into illegal gratification? There is nothing to suggest either in jurisprudence or otherwise that the term lobbying is synonymous with illegal gratification. It could, it equally couldn't be. Therefore, an inquiry will bring out the facts and government has agreed to an inquiry," he said.
Tewari also said it was not proper to make any judgment one way or the other before the probe was complete as the government had already announced an investigation by a former judge into the allegations of Walmart spending money on lobbying to get entry into the Indian market.
The minister also hit out at BJP, saying the opposition party has "reversed criminal jurisprudence on its head".
Tewari exuded optimism that Parliament would be able to pass crucial bills on banking, pension and insurance reforms despite the political contradictions as "the real fault line in this country is communalism versus pluralism".
Law will take its course on Wal-Mart: Tewari
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Law will take its course on Wal-Mart: Tewari
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Law will take its course on Wal-Mart: Tewari
