Left seeks more time on Patents Bill

Legislation on the Patents Ordinance is likely to be put off for a while as the Left parties today sought time till March 14 to discuss the government's proposals on the Patents (Third) Amendment Bill.

The Left parties, however, refused to accept the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill (PFRDA), in its present form.

After a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath and Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee, the Left leaders said both issues needed further discussion.

However, on the Patents Ordinance, the Left Front's stand seems to have softened considerably. The current delay might be the last leg of negotiations on the issue before the government puts the Patents Ordinance to vote.

"We will meet Nath and Mukherjee again on Monday after discussing the issue among ourselves," CPI(M) MP Gurudas Dasgupta said. On March 15, there will be another meeting with the "government", where the issue is likely to be settled, Left leaders said.

The government and the Left, however, gave conflicting signals on the status of negotiations between the two parties on the patents issue.

The commerce minister said the government had accepted some of the Left's suggestions, which were more a matter of "grammar" and the major part of the discussion was spent in clarifying to the Left that the prices of essential drugs would not shoot up as a result of the legislation.

Left sources, however, said the government had agreed to as many as five of the ten amendments proposed on the Bill by the Left. A senior Left leader admitted that it was a "trade union-like negotiation" and, hence, it would be hard to say what suggestions of the Left the government would finally accept.

It seems likely that pre-grant opposition and that of compulsory licensing will emerge as areas where the Government might make some concessions.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also mounted pressure on the Government today by declaring that the Patents Ordinance Bill, in its present form, was detrimental to the interests of domestic industry. The point was raised by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in Rajya Sabha today during the course of debate on the President's address.

"We will ask for the bill to be referred to a standing committee when it comes to the Lok Sabha. This is also what the Left has been asking for," she said.

The Finance Minister P Chidambaram seems to have opened discussion with the Left parties in earnest on the Pension Fund Regulator Bill. While the issue has been touched on at earlier coordination meetings between the Left and the Government, this is the first discussion where the issue was dealt on a stand- alone basis.

The discussion on the Patents and the Pension bill happened one after another, with Kamal present at the first meeting on the patents bill and Chidambaram present in the second half during talks on the pension fund regulator bill.

Under pressure from its Trade Unions, the Left has been striking a hard posture on the bill. However, further negotiations on the bill will reveal if the Left has amendments to propose that the Government might be willing to consider.