Behind The Scene: Babu and his 'welfare' patent

This is the intellectual property rights and patents regime. And former chief minister and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu, who took pride in being called the chief executive officer of Andhra Pradesh when he was in power, is adept in issues relating to patents and intellectual property rights. Though Chandrababu Naidu is a poor reader, his advisers keep him abreast of latest developments from time to time.

When Chandrababu Naidu comes to know of a new word, he uses it quite often. Perhaps he has a penchant for new words. And the word we are talking about now is patent.

The Telugu Desam leadership claims that it alone had the patent on welfare schemes and no political party in the country had introduced any welfare programme before the birth of the Telugu Desam 25 years ago. It means in other words, India had no welfare programmes from 1947 or earlier till 1983. The Congress leadership, the TD argues, has no right to claim right or patent on welfare schemes. The TD leadership has forgotten that it was the Congress which had declared India a welfare state while framing the Constitution on the country.

Chandrababu Naidu now claims that the Congress is copying his ideas and violating the patent Act by taking up welfare schemes.