Left upset with govt, not to vote for Patents Bill

The Left has communicated to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leadership that it cannot vote in favour of the Patents Bill in its present form as Commerce Minister Kamal Nath warned that India was close to defaulting on its international obligations, creating a stand-off over the very introduction of the Patents Ordinance in Parliament.

On Friday, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri had said in the Rajya Sabha the Patents Ordinance would be introduced for ratification "this week".

Left leaders had said it might be introduced in Parliament "tomorrow". But Nath flatly denied this and indicated no time-frame for its passage.

"I expect parties to see that India has to stand by its international commitments. We will be having more meetings with the Left," Nath told reporters when asked about the future of the Patents Ordinance.

But the Left did not meet Nath today as scheduled though senior Left leaders said their decision had been conveyed to him . The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also clarified its stand today, asking for the Bill it had authored to be referred to a select committee.

"An Ordinance such as this has to be referred to a select committee. The Government should not have brought such a law through the Ordinance route in the first place," said senior BJP leader and former Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley.

With both the Left parties and the BJP deciding to ask for the Bill to be referred to a select committee, odds are stacked against the Ordinance coming into effect in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament.

Nath said the Government had already agreed to some suggestions made by the Left parties. He said he hoped the Left would now see the Government's point of view and not insist that the Bill be referred to a select committee.

This, according to him, was likely to invite sanctions from the World Trade Organisation, something clearly not in the interest of the country.

An Ordinance promulgated by the government has a life of six months, by which time it must be ratified by Parliament to become a law. Failing this, the Ordinance lapses and has to be re-promulgated.

The Patents (Third) Amendment Ordinance was promulgated on December 27, 2004 in time for the Government to meet the January 1, 2005 deadline for TRIPS compliance.

If the Patents Bill is sent to a select committee for further discussion, there is little chance that the Bill will be returned before June, when the Budget session ends, observers say.

Even in the earlier session of Parliament, the government was unable to introduce the Bill because of objections by the Left and the ambivalence of the BJP.

Hence, the government resorted to passing an Ordinance in order to meet the deadline, leaving the tougher part of getting the Left around to its position -- for the interim period between the Winter and Budget sessions of Parliament.

Several rounds of negotiations later, the government seems to have been unable to get the Left to agree to the Bill as it has now been drafted.

The Left's main objections to the Bill, dealing with what constitutes "new" use, the need for pre-grant opposition, compulsory licensing and enabling protection for the domestic industry in the transition from the process to the product patents regime, have been summarily ignored by the government, the Left claims.

It is now up to the Government to decide whether to bring the Bill to the Lok Sabha or wait it out a little longer, hoping the Left or the BJP will change its stand.