Realism at last

The compromise between the government and the Left to facilitate the passage of the Patents Bill is a laudable example of how legislation ou...

The compromise between the government and the Left to facilitate the passage of the Patents Bill is a laudable example of how legislation ought to be managed. The Patents Bill was long overdue. Such a bill was necessary for the creation of a regulatory framework for patents commensurate with the needs of a modern economy and for making India comply with WTO norms. While many of the fears of introducing a patent regime in accordance with WTO provisions were unfounded, there was nevertheless some doubt about the bill in the form in which it had been introduced. The Left was entirely correct in its worries about the bill. The bill as introduced had placed more restrictions on compulsory licensing of drugs than were enjoined by WTO provisions. It risked frittering away some of the hard won flexibilities India had argued for.

The WTO had rightly made provisions to enable any government to introduce compulsory licensing for any reason it deemed relevant to public health. This would ensure that generics continue to be available at low cost. Somehow our bureaucracy had once again managed to make this clearly straightforward provision hostage to numerous qualifications that were unwarranted. The bill had also needlessly made it difficult for companies to challenge the grant of patents before they were granted. Hence, reservations from both the Right and the Left. But the BJP resorted to its evasive tactics by insisting on the bill being referred to a select committee. This was disingenuous because the bill has been under discussion for more than five years and its initial drafts were artifacts of the NDA government. The BJP8217;s repeated reversing of its own decisions is confining it to intellectual and policy irrelevance in Parliament.

There is supreme irony in the fact that the Left has finally come to the rescue of the bill. It has, candidly acknowledged that India has to work within the framework of the WTO. But it performed an enormously constructive role by ensuring that India took maximum advantage of the flexibilities offered by the WTO agreements. It has shown that there is no necessary incompatibility between prudential acceptance of globalisation and working for the interests of consumers. But it has also shown the value of constructive criticism over obstructionist parliamentary tactics. The Left has reiterated its stand that it still disagrees on a couple of issues like the protection granted to indigenous knowledge. But it has not let this disagreement stand in the way of passing the legislation. Instead it suggested some amendments. The bill was long overdue, and it is to the credit of the UPA that it at last looks as if it has cobbled a workable compromise.