India, March 13 -- Union minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday termed Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's remarks on reported LPG shortage "pretence", and accused him of pursuing "foreign agenda" by raising "baseless" issues in Lok Sabha to lower the stature of the country.

Goyal also slammed Gandhi and Congress members for holding a protest at the Makar Dwar of Parliament in violation of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's ruling, and demanded that action be taken against them.

Asserting that the foundation of every single nation is its energy security, Gandhi on Thursday alleged that the government has "bartered" to the US India's right to determine its relations with different oil suppliers due to a "compromise". Raising the issue in the Lok Sa...