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Bt brinjal: plea to Manmohan to withdraw report

Gargi Parsai

New Delhi: Non-governmental organisations and individuals have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withdraw the report of the Expert Committee on Bt brinjal and reject the recommendation of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee for its commercial cultivation.

Similar letters written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh and signed by 353 groups/persons, challenged the recommendation of the expert committee and charged it with succumbing to pressures from “political and vested interests.”

Basing some of its charges on television interviews given by the chair of the Expert Committee,

The groups pointed out that the chairperson of the committee had admitted on television that “genetically engineered food products will not be equal to the non-genetically engineered food products.” Bt brinjal is the first-ever GM vegetable in the world.

The letters alleged that the terms of reference and the mandate of the committee were altered to favour the commercial interests of a multi-national seed company. They charged some of the members with having “conflict of interest.”

Among the signatories were Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, New Delhi, National Alliance for People’s Movements, Jaiva Karshaka Samithi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu Green Movement, Forum for Sustainable Development, Hyderabad, National Agriculture Workers Forum, Tamil Nadu, and Self-Employed Women’s Association, Kerala

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