NEW DELHI: BJP leader
Subramanian Swamy has called for the sacking of yet another of the country's top economic functionaries. After targeting RBI Governor
Raghuram Rajan, who announced on Saturday that he would not be serving a second term, Swamy has now attacked
Chief Economic Adviser
Arvind Subramanian, a PM Modi-appointee.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, Swamy took aim at Subramanian over his stand on
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Citing a TOI report, Swamy recalled that Subramanian had recommended that the US government act against India through the WTO over its pharmaceutical
IPR
regulations.
Subramanian had made that recommendation to the
US Congress
in a written testimony, which was submitted in March. His stand in this testimony was a reiteration of the line he had taken in March 2013, over a year before his appointment as Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) by the Narendra Modi government.
Subramanian sought changes in Indian patent law. His focus had been on provisions that are aimed at preventing frivolous patenting and preventing pharmaceutical companies from getting extensions on patents by tweaking existing drugs and passing them off as innovations.
"If India does not address the problems created by Section 3(d) of the patent legislation or by compulsory licensing for nonworking, the United States should consider initiating WTO disputes against India," read Subramanian's testimony to the US Congress.
He justified this approach on the ground that India took its WTO obligations seriously and had a good track record of implementing WTO dispute settlement rulings. He added that for the US, "the virtue of using WTO dispute settlement was that it would be diplomatically and politically less confrontational than unilateral and bilateral actions".
Swamy also alleged that Subramanian had a hand in the Congress's unrelenting stand on the
GST Bill .
Subramanian Swamy has been in the limelight for his perceived role in ensuring that Raghuram Rajan does not serve a second term as Governor of the RBI. After he had attacked Rajan as
'unfit' for the job and 'mentally not fully Indian'. Rajan announced on Saturday that he would
return to academia after his term ends in September.
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