The Left and other non-Congress Opposition parties will move a motion for referring the Bill to a select committee or a standing committee when it will come up for discussion on December 21, according to CPI(M) leader Biplab Dasgupta.

The amendments proposed to the patents law had serious implications for the sovereignty of the nation, its industry and also the federal character of its polity. Therefore, the Bill should be subjected to closer scrutiny, he told reporters today.

Mounting a scathing attack on the Congress for supporting the Bill which was actually its own baby, he said that the party was aware of the danger of not being able to get the legislation passed if it came to power. The BJP would then side with the Left parties as it did in 1995. ``The Congress wants the BJP to do the dirtywork for it,'' he said.

He made light of arguments in favour of approving the Bill, asserting that the World Trade Organisation could not throw India out of it even if it did not stick to the April 19, 1999 deadline for introducing exclusive marketing rights in the patents law.

Dasgupta said that at best some nations could apply sanctions against India but then such punitive measures would hurt those nations also. This was proved by the post-Pokharan sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries against India, he added.