The government has responded to the adverse World Trade Organisation ruling on India's inadequate patent law by - surprise - setting up a committee to evolve that thoroughly elusive commodity, a ``consensus''.Sad to say, it is a bit late in the day for that. The dispute was in the WTO for a year. The argument goes farther back. There has been and will be no consensus, with irresponsible and ill-informed parliamentarians indulging in a free-for-all, George Fernandes even declaring to The Indian Express that leaving the WTO would have to be considered. This particular government is not culpable for India's sorry plight. That honour goes to the Congress, which did precious little to evolve, yes, a consensus on the Uruguay Round agreement and failed in its attempt to effect the amendment.But the UF Government does overdo the consensus thing. Where is the question of consensus in a contractual obligation? India signed the Uruguay Round agreement and has now been found to be in violation of it. There, as far as the world is concerned, the matter ends. India must either comply or face penalties. Or, as hotheads would have it, leave the WTO - a laughable idea. Let those who propose it be forewarned that this would not diminish India's agony. It still could face sanctions if its trading partners were sufficiently outraged, as indeed they should be.To be fair to it, this government is hardly likely to get the amendment through. If a far more stable Congress Government could not have it passed, the UF Government's prospects are zero. But there is a failure of leadership here. The government is not unaware of the consequences of non-compliance. It should have the courage to articulate them to the Opposition in Parliament, and do it publicly. If in the end it still fails to convince anyone to go with it, at least the country will know who is to blame. It is supine not to loudly remind everyone that the BJP Government, in its fortnight in power, had found this issue sufficiently important to promise to pass the amendment. If the BJP will not now cooperate in its passage to spite another government, let the people know and draw their own conclusions about the party. Let Murli Manohar Joshi of the parliamentary forum on patents answer. Likewise for the Congress. How can the party which itself moved the amendment in the first place now fail to go along?The trouble with Indian politics ever is that politicians will take no risk. If they will not even try who is to say whether or not they would have succeeded if they had tried? The heavens will not fall if this government tries and fails to have the law amended. All manner of attempted legislation collapsed like a tonne of bricks in the last session. The failure of one more can hardly destroy a credibility already in tatters. Indeed, it will have several distinct advantages. If the consequences of not complying with the WTO ruling are clearly spelt out to the people, the government will win goodwill for at least trying. Indians will see how shamelessly other parties will sacrifice the country's interest to score brownie points. And the world will see that the failure to oblige is due to the compulsions of democracy, of which the West, and particularly America, makes such a fetish.
