I was delighted to read Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer's new book titled "Random Reflections", recently published by Universal Law Publishing. Some of the chapters issue out stern warnings that need to be heeded.

In the chapter titled "People's Commission on Perversion of our Patent Laws", Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer writes in his inimitable style:

"...the subversion of our national interest through GATT treaties will be condemned as brazen betrayal of people's concerns committing the country to global corporate commands. This humiliating syndrome has been called GATTastrophe and Operation Recolonisation .....

Patents are monopolies and monopolies are evil ..."

Justice Iyer calls for shorter patent terms and regulation of prices of patented products, in public interest, particularly with sharp focus on food and medicine. He declares: "All our ayurvedic wealth, herbal medicines and tribal recipies involve no novelty to an Indian and should not be available for patentisation under the western illusion of glittering packages and trivial tampering". Justice Iyer finishes the chapter with the words: "People first, TRIPS next."

I may add here that a clarion call to halt software patents from gaining patentability is also now becoming necessary even in India.

At the end of the book, Justice Iyer pays rich tributes to Rabindranath Tagore, "a univerasal man, the humanist whose heart had no boundaries".

The dangers of software patents have been voiced by RMS, and there is another voice from the distant past that is quoted by Justice Iyer in the book, that helps to visualise the dangers of software patents more graphically:

<quote from Gitanjali of Rabindranath Tagore> `Prisoner, tell me, who was it that wrought this unbreakable chain?'

`It was I,' said the prisoner, `who forged this chain very carefully. I thought my invicible power would hold the world captive leaving me in a freedom undisturbed. Thus night and day I worked at the chain with huge fires and cruel hard strokes. When at last the work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip. </quote>

NASSCOM is working to strengthen "IPR" assuming that it will make the Indian software companies an invicible power that can hold the world captive. The folly of the prisoner should serve as a good lesson to pre-empt inviting dangers home. [ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/%3E/articleshow/829092.cms http://www.products.nasscom.org/artdisplay.aspx?cat_id=486 ] Let us never see the story of the prisoner enacted in real life.

Justice Iyer takes us to the depths of vital issues facing us today, and gently guides the reader to the plane of clarity and denouement. The profound "Random Reflections" of Justice Iyer are very relevant, pertinent and timely to all who cherish freedom, liberty and universality.

A profile of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, Former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, is available at http://www.vrkrishnaiyer.org/profile.htm

-Ramanraj.