King Canute's Legislations : The Biological Diversity Bill

As the story goes, in ancient times, there was a king, King Canute, who thought he was so powerful that nothing happened in his kingdom without his orders or directions. This led him to believe that the stars came out to shine and set under his orders and night and day happened because of him. And spring followed winter on his command. He had a wise minister who wanted to teach King Canute a lesson. He said "My Lord, you are indeed powerful and all the elements are under your control. So, let us establish your supremacy on the sea shore of your kingdom. Hence, your Lordship will be able to control the seas and the waves". King Canute relished the idea and so he set his throne on the sea shore and started commanding the waves to recede. Naturally, this did not happen and our king and his throne were drenched by a huge wave. King Canute was left humble and wiser.

Our modern day King Canutes in the Parliament in their wisdom want to pass the Biological Diversity Bill in the same genre.

Under cover of this Bill, the King Canutes wish to prevent any person outside India from obtaining knowledge relating to any living-being in India whether it is a plant, animal or germ. And if such a person dares to obtain this knowledge, our King Canutes have threatened in the Bill to put him/her in jail for a period of 5 years and charge him/her a fine of Rs. 10 Lakhs. This prohibition of obtaining knowledge is directed towards all foreign nationals, Indian citizens who are non-residents and a company or organization in India, which has even one share holder or a manager who is a non-Indian. The Government of India wants such persons not to obtain knowledge, that is not to read any literature, newspapers, watch television programmes, surf the internet or study in any educational institutions whereby he/she will gain knowledge relating to living-beings in India.

In case a person wishes to obtain any such knowledge, such a person has to take approval of an authority which is to be established by the Government of India called the National Bio-diversity Authority.

Our King Canutes also want to prevent any person, including Indian Citizens, Indian Organisations, firms, from publishing any results relating to any research on any living-being i.e. plant, animal, germs, micro-organisms in any publications either on payment or even free without the approval of the National Bio-diversity Authority.

Hereafter, if the Bio-diversity Bill is converted to an Act, no researcher in India will be entitled to publish any work relating to a plant, animal, insect or germ or human being, without the previous approval of the National Bio-diversity authority nor will he/she be able to publish his/her research work in any seminar or workshop, which is not approved by the authority or central government. The bill will also effectively prevent any educational institution from admitting any foreign national or a citizen of India who is non-resident in any course in which such a person could obtain knowledge relating to any plant, animal, micro-organisms, insect or human being.

The crown piece of legislation promulgated by our King Canutes is an order directing that no person can apply or obtain a patent within India or outside India for any invention based on any research or information of a plant, animal, germ, human or insect without approval of the National Bio-diversity Authority, before making such an application. In this glorious piece of legislation our King Canutes have dispensed equal justice to citizens of India and foreigners. Therefore, all persons are punishable if they file patent applications which are based on research and information relating to a plant, animal or germ.

To sum up:

• No research worker or for that matter any other person can by word of mouth or in writing provide any information relating to any plant, animal, micro-organisms, insect or human beings. It does not matter whether such a person receives any payment for such oral or written communication to any person.
• All organisations having websites will have to be careful to ascertain that no details of any research are published on the websites if such details relate to any plant, animal, micro-organisms, insect or human beings. All educational institutions particularly in the field of plant, animal, micro-organisms, insect or human science or in the field of biology or microbiology will be unable to admit individuals in their institutions, if such an individual is a foreign national or a non-resident Indian.
• No person can address any seminar or workshop or send any publication for dissemination in any seminar or workshop before first ascertaining that such publication or such seminar or workshop is in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central Government.
• No person, including citizens and organizations in India or foreign nations or organizations in India, will be permitted to file patent applications either in India or outside India which is based on any research or information relating to a plant, animal, micro-organisms, insect or human beings without the prior approval of the National Bio-diversity Authority. This virtually precludes almost all patents in the field of bio-technology and pharmaceutics. No legal system in the history has ever been able to impose restrictions on the transmission or obtaining knowledge. The thirst for new knowledge is almost instinctive in the human mind. And this legislation proposes to clamp down on the thirst. In the process it can make only a laughing stock of the legislators.
• The second part of the Bio-diversity Bill legislation attempts to regulate on actually obtaining of a plant, animal, micro-organisms, insect or human being by either a foreign national or citizens of India, non-resident Indian or by a company or organizations that has even one non-Indian share holder or non-Indian manager. The way the Bill is worded no foreign national who is in India can buy an Egg or a bunch of Bananas without the approval of the National Bio-diversity authority. If such person happens to obtain such plant, animal or a part thereof he/she can be put behind bars for the aforesaid terms. As worded, exporters of plant and animal products can be treated as abettors of the crime of obtaining biological resources and shall be so punishable.

Biological diversity cannot be controlled by artificial boundaries. Just as insects and animals are part of the natural chain of reproduction in plants, so do human beings in history have been instrumental in diversifying living beings throughout this planet.

This human endeavour has made plants such as chillies and tobacco, fruits like pineapple, strawberries indigenous of India. The problem is not of diversification per se. The problem is the human greed and commercialisation and exploitation of developing economies by greedy corporations that are developed. These dangers will become more rampant and critical in an era where liberalisation and globalisation have been thrust down the throats of the people of the developed countries.

Legislations like the Bio-diversity Bill will serve no useful purpose but will only serve as a mechanism in the hands of a servile government and corrupt minios to harm researchers, teachers, educational institutions, research organisations and citizens of this country. Let us hope that we collectively, the people of this country, can provide some wisdom to make our King Canutes humbler and wiser.