India said on Wednesday the World Bank ban on Wipro was not on account of any action of the IT company, but on the contrary the action was initiated because a Bank employee had bought Wipro shares.
"Why was wipro banned?. . . it was not banned for any of its action. . . it was banned because one of the employees (of World Bank) bought some shares which their own ethical standards do not allow... it has nothing to do with Wipro," commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath told BBC in an interview.
Asked if the government has taken up this issue with the World Bank and told them that they had not been fair with the Indian firm, he, however, said, "I think Wipro needs to take it up."
On whether the World Bank could be wrong on the issue, Nath said, "I don't know. . .I really don't know... the World Bank has been wrong many times..a number of times they have been right also..."
". . .I don't say that just because the World Bank says so and just because they call themselves the World Bank, what they say is right," the minister noted.
After disclosing late last year its decision banning Satyam Computer Services, the World Bank said earlier this month that Wipro and another Indian IT firm Megasoft have also been debarred from directly doing business with it under its corporate procurement programme.
On the World Bank ban on Satyam, Nath said that Satyam was not the only IT company in India and there were hundreds of them. "We cannot make Satyam as the index or the unit of measurement of Indian IT sector."
The Bank had disclosed the ban on Satyam on December 25, while debarment of Wipro and Megasoft was revealed on January 11.
As per the World Bank, Wipro had beenexcluded for four years till 2011 from getting direct contracts for allegedly providing improper benefits to Bank staff.
"Our inability to get future business from World Bank will not adversely affect our business and results of operations," Wipro said in a statement, while maintaining that it had done nothing wrong.