text: Interestingly, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch is the economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which advocates a muscular Hindu nationalism and provides the ideological fuel to the India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
  India’s drug-makers are taking a less strident stand on the controversy. Some are upset that verbal assurances given behind closed doors are out in the open. Some dismiss the controversy as hype.
  “What are these ‘private assurances” that are being talked about so much? These could have been just casual, verbal assurances which often happen during talks. I see this as an example of lobbying by bodies like USIBC. The aim is to pressure India. The government of India has not officially said anything on the matter. Nor has there been any change in the patent law,” Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) Deputy Secretary-General T R Gopalakrishnan told Intellectual Property Watch. The IDMA has 900 members.
  The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), which represents 20 big drug makers, says India’s patent laws are fully WTO-compliant. However, “if the government of India had said something privately, USIBC should not have embarrassed it by making it public,” IPA Secretary General D.G. Shah told Reuters.