The Hindu : National : `Parties must not change positions because they change sides'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005

National

National

`Parties must not change positions because they change sides'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 21. The Leader of the Lok Sabha and Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, today said "parties should not be changing positions just because they change sides." His reference was to the Bharatiya Janata Party's demand that the crucial Patents Amendment Bill be sent to a standing committee for vetting.

The previous National Democratic Alliance Government had prepared the Bill but it could not be taken up for consideration as the Lok Sabha was dissolved. Due to international commitment, the Government had to put the Act in place by January 1 this year and adopted the Ordinance route.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, demanded that the Bill be sent to the standing committee and added that its Chairman had promised to hold meetings on a daily basis so that the Bill could be taken up for passage in the current session. The ordinance expires on April 8 and Parliament goes into recess on March 24.

Earlier, under pressure from parties, the discussion on the Bill was deferred till tomorrow when members sought more time to go through the amendments.

Mr. Mukherjee said that when the Congress was in the Opposition, the party had supported the Second Amendment Bill in 1999.

On his part, Mr. Advani said that the BJP was aware of the country's international obligation and was not against the Bill. He voiced concern over many provisions in the Bill, especially those relating to life-saving drugs.

Earlier, the Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath, said that the Government brought the Ordinance because it could not introduce a Bill during the last session in December. He said he had consulted various political parties and had incorporated in the ordinance a suggestion made by the BJP. He objected to the charge that the Government was not being responsible and was taking the serious objections in a casual manner.

He said the Patents Act 1970 had been amended twice — in March 1999 and June 2002. In the second instance, a Joint Parliamentary Committee had studied it and given its report after two years.

Among the members who expressed their views were Ramji Lal Suman (Samajwadi Party), K. Yerran Naidu (TDP), Prabhunath Singh (JD-U), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Maneka Gandhi (BJP), Braja Kishore Tripathy (BJD) and Ilyas Azmi (BSP). They sought time to study the amendments.

MPs from the Left parties also exerted pressure on the Government with Varkala Radhakrishnan, Rupchand Pal and Suresh Kurup (all CPI-M) and Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) also seeking time.

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