washington dont let angry rhetoric arising from private sector business rivalries cloud political and strategic reasoning that underpin closer usindia ties indias finance minister p chidambaram is telling american lawmakers officials and corporate leaders pushing back against incessant griping and sniping from corporate america over perceived roadblocks against them in india complaints most resonant in recent spats over patent laws and taxation rulings new delhis most articulate financial spokesman cast the current imbroglio as the outcome of the growing challenge indian companies are posing to us businesses in some areas primarily in it systems integration and pharmaceuticals noting that business competition is the foundation of a free market and free economy chidambaram now on a threeday visit to defuse the overheated situation told corporate leaders at a usindia business council usibc leadership summit that business rivalries should not be brought to the political table the message was primarily aimed at us lawmakers and obama administration officials who have readily bought into what indian officials say are glib and overwrought presentations made by us businesses about the alleged protectionist regime in india speaking on background officials described the finance ministers meetings with us interlocutors over the past 48 hours in which he went into granular details of some of the disputes to clear some of washingtons misconceptions one example that came up repeatedly was indias alleged violation of patent principles with lawyerly precision they said chidambaran explained that there had been only one case of compulsory drug licensing in india bayers cancer drug nexavar licensed to indias natco pharma in 2012 canada had given four compulsory licenses including one against bayer italy had four malaysia had three indonesia had six the us itself had done so in the case of ciproflaxin after the anthrax scare so why was the indian case being singled out especially when licensing was upheld during judicial review on each of the three possible grounds sufficient quantities of the drug were not being produced in india it was not being sold at an affordable price and the patent was not being worked in india besides since both india and us were signatories to the world trade organization if washington had a problem with the indian decision it could approach geneva for dispute resolution instead of needlessly heating up the rhetoric the finance minister also told his interlocutors that the government had little to do with patent infringements patents are infringed all over the world and private parties were free to go to the courts in india which typically give injunctions in 99 out of 100 cases us response some degree of understanding officials said maintaining that the issue had been overblown by interested lobbies in fact only five congressmen from the nearly 180 lawmakers who wrote a letter to obama complaining against india turned up for the meeting with the finance minister indian officials surmise that that the letter was only in response to pressure from the pharma lobby it is no secret that the pharmaceutical sector