The genetically modified Bt Brinjal has been developed in compliance with international norms and experts evaluating it have found no danger in it, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Tuesday. Supporting the experts’ panel — which has been criticised by many independent scientists and green activists, the minister told the Rajya Sabha in reply to a question: ”Bt Brinjal event EE-1 has been developed in compliance with the prevailing regulatory procedures and biosafety guidelines which conform to the international norms”.

That American agri-companies have intensified lobbying with Indian political parties is not surprising, for two reasons. First, the Indian government has yet to greenlight the commercialisation of Bt brinjal -- crucial for the future of these ’Bt brand’ companies -- even after a thumbs up from the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC). Also, the winter session of Parliament is to take up two crucial pieces of legislation: The Seed Bill and the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill.

”We do not want GM (genetically modified) crops which can prove apocalyptic for mankind. Let us say never to Bt-brinjal”. The declaration, along with the demand that state government declare Karnataka GM-free, was made at a state-level conference on genetic engineering, farming and food in Mysore on Saturday. The conference, jointly held by the Institution of Engineers, Mysore Local Centre, Mysore Grahaka Parishat and Deccan Development Society, Hyderabad, wherein experts placed views for and against genetic engineering (GE).

For a man who will inherit vast tracts of fertile farmland in Punjab, India’s grain bowl, Jaswinder Singh made what seemed to him a logical career move -- he took a job with a telecoms company in New Delhi. [...] Singh’s choice reflects a growing and worrisome trend in the nation’s agriculture sector: Indian farms are failing to attract capital or talent, either from rich landlords like Singh, or the 21,000 students who graduate from India’s 50 agricultural and veterinary universities.

A number of farmer groups met in Delhi recently to plan a stir against opening the country to genetically-modified (GM) foods like Bt brinjal.

Under the ’Jan Jagaran Abhiyan’, the protesters are also hoping to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as the Union agriculture and health ministers. Farmers claimed Bt brinjal would contaminate traditional varieties of brinjal, and the cultivators would suffer the consequences. They also alleged that the decision to allow the sale of Bt brinjal - which still awaits the government’s nod - was linked with commercial interests.

In March 2002, when Bt cotton was approved for commercial cultivation, there was scant opposition to the Government’s decision. The few murmurs of protest from assorted NGOs and self-proclaimed farmers’ bodies were drowned by the actions of the ryots themselves. Their clamouring for the transgenic cotton seeds was indeed reminiscent of the early Green Revolution days, when the country’s premier agricultural universities reported frequent thefts and raids by farmers jostling for the new ’magic’ wheat varieties.

With the state cotton federation now officially acknowledging a big loss to cotton crop, farmers’ pressure group Vidarbha Jan Andolan

Samiti has demanded that the government should seek compensation to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore from Bt cotton seed manufacturers and insecticide, pesticide makers for the losses suffered by farmers.

Unfazed by the ongoing opposition to the commercialisation of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) brinjal, Monsanto India Limited (MIL), a subsidiary of US-based global biotech food major Monsanto Company, is planning to introduce genetically modified corn in the country by 2012-13. The proposed corn seed would be embedded with not only Bt but also with the company’s ’Roundup ready’ technology that would be helpful in management of weeds and insects, MIL’s director- corporate affairs, Gyanendra Shukla, told Business Standard.

a distinguished professor with the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) said that genetically modified brinjal (Bt brinjal) is not harmful and added that it’s a safe technology. Dr Satbir Singh Gosal, additional director, research, (agriculture) in PAU, said the technology would produce vegetables with much less insecticide level, whereas Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), which was involved in research for genetically modified (GM) food the past six years, has also commented that it is safe to consume Bt brinjal.

the decision of Jairam Ramesh, minister for environment and forests, to postpone decision on environmental release of Bt brinjal until enough time has been given to people to review what has been done on Bt brinjal critically and according to stringent scientific norms, and then to have a scientific discussion on the merit or demerit of such a release, is fair and wise. We must commend the minister for his courageous stand.