The Patent Problem

BY darius| IN Opinion | 27/03/2005

You don`t say!

 Darius Nakhoonwala

 
Every now and then something happens which separates the good editors from the opinionated. The good ones talk sense based on facts, while the opinionated ones bare their prejudices. Last week`s passage of the long debated, long awaited, and generally poorly understood patents bill gave a vivid demonstration of this.

By far the most sensible editorial appeared in the Hindustan Times. It got the point just right, that when legislation of just monumental importance is being contemplated, it is the duty of all political parties to engage in the debate sensibly and not simply play ducks and drakes with it. "The bill was passed with the BJP playing politics, the Congress being clever and the Left, surprisingly, being constructive." Quite so.

The Indian Express also had a sensible common sense view. "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." It even had a good word for the Left. "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." It was also the only paper to point out that the Left has finally "acknowledged that India has to work within the framework of the WTO."

The Telegraph took a similar view and was also the only one to point out that India had no choice but to amend the Patents Act of 1970 so that protection is provided not just to the holders of specified processes but to products as well. The question was always what the best way of doing this was. There were always going to be differing views on this and whatever the final outcome, there would always be some who would think that the new dispensation was a poor one. In the end it would boil down to definitions and coverage and on this the paper simply stated the facts without taking a view except to say that
"Multinationals will be unhappy."

But it was The Hindu which went off track, belabouring the NDA and the BJP beyond the call of necessity. "The National Democratic Alliance Government failed to build in all the safeguards and protections allowed by TRIPS, so one might even say India over-fulfilled its commitments."

Everyone knows that the BJP stupidly opposed the bill. The result was that the Left became crucial to the passage of the Bill. It took full advantage of the situation (and dumping its previous `principled` stands) it agreed to support the Bill in return for what will eventually turn out to be very cosmetic changes. But The Hindu had to defend the left and did so by attacking the NDA. In doing so, it sounded exactly like The Pioneer but in the reverse.

The Business Standard pointed out that the Bill as finally passed was an improved version of the old one. But it was alone amongst the various newspapers to point out that "it might be prudent to refer the Bill to a parliamentary committee for further review, as suggested by the BJP. That this has not been done testifies to the state of  hostility between the two main political formations. Nevertheless, the new patents law is better put together than seemed possible a month or two ago."

As a reader, I have one grievance. If the old Bill was so bad, why was this not pointed out then? And why hasn`t someone explained why the NDA drafted  such a flawed Bill.