The Hindu : Front Page : A small battle won: Left

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 24, 2005

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A small battle won: Left

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 23. The Left parties today said they had won a ``small battle'' to safeguard the national interest by forcing the United Progressive Alliance Government to incorporate changes in the Patents Amendment Bill.

They also promised to apply pressure on the Government through mass mobilisation to balance the position on the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in favour of Indian people.

``The Left parties believe that the incorporation of the new amendments is a major advance for those who have been campaigning for the safeguarding of the national interest on the issue... . it is only a small battle that has been joined, and [the] ultimate aim should be to overturn the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement and bring it out of the World Trade Organisation,'' the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member, Prakash Karat, said at a joint press conference by the Left parties.

The All-India Forward Bloc general secretary, Debabrata Biswas, its secretary, G. Devarajan, the CPI national secretary, D. Raja and the CPI(M) Lok Sabha Chief Whip, Rup Chand Pal, were also present.

Mr. Karat criticised the BJP for its ``dubious and double-faced role''.

He said after maintaining a deafening silence, the BJP announced its opposition to the Ordinance less than a week ago.

He said the Left parties felt that the Government was disregarding the public interest and appeared unwilling to make use of even the limited safeguards in the TRIPS agreement.

The amendments tabled by the Government addressed the concerns of the Left in seven areas of restriction on patentability; no software patenting; restoration of pre-grant opposition to patents, export to countries without the manufacturing ability, continued manufacture of drugs with application in mailbox; time period for considering compulsory licence application and export by Indian companies of patented drugs.

He said two of the amendments were not accepted, one was microorganisms to be excluded from the scope of patentability and the other a specific definition of new entities.

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