Left-UPA meet may take up patents Bill

The Left parties will meet United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leaders over lunch on November 11 as part of the co-ordination meeting.

On the menu is the petroleum products' price hike, the foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector, the patents Bill and public sector undertakings and their divestment.

The meeting, the first after the government announced the fuel price hike, will see the Left parties demanding a roll back. The Left has been maintaining that the government should reduce the Customs and excise duties on petroleum products.

Several Left leaders have suggested that the oil companies should be asked to absorb the impact of the global fuel price increase, rather than pass it on to the common man, The government so far, as been protective of the interests of the oil companies with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claiming that it would not make sense "to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs".

Any bargaining with the Left, if it happens, is likely to revolve around liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices. While announcing the hike on November 4, the government had seemingly left a window of negotiation open with the Left by making the increase in LPG prices calibrated.

The extra Rs 5 hike each month might be done away with, though no Left leaders are willing to admit at this point that they are amenable to a partial roll-back.

The meeting will also see a debate on the FDI in the telecom sector, with Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran expected at the luncheon appointment.

The Left parties are expected to hand over their reply to the government's note on the telecom sector. The note, which has been prepared as a rebuttal of the Finance Minister P Chidambaram's arguments, is likely to show how the finance minister has been selective in providing information of justify his proposal for hiking FDI caps in the telecom sector.

The presence of Maran, who usually does not attend the co-ordination meeting, might be a signal by the government that it's time the Left settled down to accepting the hike, with objections or without them.

On the patents Bill, the Left has made it clear that it does not think the government is bound to meet the January 1 2005 TRIPS deadline for amending the law. Left leaders have been insisting that the Bill needs further discussion and without being referred to a parliamentary standing committee, it cannot be passed.

The Left parties and the UPA are also like to discuss other matters such as the implementation of the common minimum programme, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, in the context of the Home Minister Shivraj Patil's recent visit to the region and the situation arising from the re-election of George W Bush in Iraq and in Iran.