Karnataka - Bangalore   

Reject Bt brinjal: RSS chief

BANGALORE: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Rao Bhagwat on Sunday vehemently opposed the moves to commercialise the cultivation of Bt brinjal.

Addressing a national convention of representatives from the NGOs affiliated to the Rashtriya Seva Bharati, the service wing of the RSS, in Bangalore, Mr. Bhagwat termed Bt brinjal as “videshi” (foreign) and sought to equate it with the problem of infiltration of people from across the border.

Infiltration of both the people as well as Bt brinjal is problematic to the country, he remarked and expressed concern that Bt brinjal would affect the country’s rich and diverse seed varieties stored by individual farmers. “We have a strong agricultural heritage of more than 10,000 years,” he pointed out and expressed fear that any clearance for commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal would affect the country’s agriculture.

Referring to the nationwide consultations held by the Union Government on the commercialisation of Bt brinjal which ended on Saturday, Mr. Bhagwat said instead of holding such consultation, the Centre should have outrightly rejected permission for commercialisation of Bt brinjal cultivation.

He took exception to the Union Government keeping brinjal out of the purview of the Bio-diversity Act even as the consultation of commercialisation of the Bt brinjal was on.

He said the intention behind the service activities taken up by the Rashtriya Seva Bharati was to empower the needy and to initiate the process for their all-round development to bring about a social change. The focus was on empowering the service-receivers to become service-providers without any selfish motives, he said.

The former chief of RSS K.S. Sudarshan has called upon delegates from 700 service organisations affiliated to the Rashtriya Seva Bharati to fan out to villages for serving the poor and help set up schools and health centres. Inaugurating “Seva Sangam 2010”, organised by the RSB, he said that thousands of farmers were committing suicide every year across the country for various reasons, including huge debts.

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