Early in the morning, my phone gave a tinkle. It was a reminder based on a calendar event I had created, to call Dr. Bhargava early my morning when it was late evening in Hyderabad India, where he stayed.
Dr Pushpa M. Bhargava is a well known man. He is founder and former director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India; former vice chair, National Knowledge Commission, Govt of India; former member, National Security Advisory Board; Nominee of the Supreme Court of India on the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee of the Govt of India.
Some of the relevant points discussed were:
- Bt. Cotton : This has proven to be bad for India. There is mounting evidence of link between rising farmer suicide and Bt. Cotton. Dr. Bhargava states that he has checked his records going back several decades and in fact has the necessary documents to show the increase in farmer suicide in the Cotton farming belt started in large scale since introduction of Bt. Cotton. He further claims that the Bt. gene is a dangerous item and needs to be banned altogether. He feels optimistic that this will happen in India. However, he believes banning of Bt. Cotton will not come from the Government itself, which is focussed on promoting interest of western corporations. The change will come from public pressure, and the significant role being played by the Indian CIvil Society. This may even turn out to be an election issue next year. Dr. Bhargava further stated that the Govt. of Philippines had invited Dr. Bhargava for his views on some of the Bt. Crops such as Bt. Brinjal and had more or less followed his recommendation in rejecting it in their country.
- Roundup Ready crop : According to Dr. Bhargava, this is an even bigger disaster than the Bt. Cottons. But thankfully, it is not introduced in India at all, except in small experiments and field trials. Unfortunately, the Agricultural Minister of India is pushing all he can to promote Western Patented and clearly detrimental technology of GM crop for questionable scientific or ethical reasons. Nonetheless, Roundup Ready crops are a long distance away from large scale introduction in India.
- Bt. Brinjal : There was a major groundswell of opposition against Bt. Brinjal in India a few years ago, that prompted the then minister of environment Mr. Jairam Ramesh to investigate the pros and cons issue of the Bt. crop and put a moratorium on it, essentially banning it from India for the foreseeable future. This happened in spite of the money poured into media campaign by corporations and the support the GM crop got from most of the Government and business class. This was perhaps the first major setback for GM crop globally, and set the stage for the rest of the issues.
- Supreme Court Case : There is a ground breaking case unfolding in the Indian Supreme Court where top Indian scientific expert committee has advised the Court in a case against the Govt of India, about the harmful effects of GM technology. It is possible that the Supreme Court might force the hand of Govt of India in banning most of the GM crops for now.
- Biopiracy : There is another interesting case ongoing in a High Court, initiated by civil society individuals against the Govt of India, providing evidence that Monsanto and its partner have violated the National Biological Diversity Act (2002) by using a variety of Indian eggplant (brinjal) without obtaining the permission of Government of India for such use as required according to Indian laws to produce GM brinjal. This is in essence an act of Biopiracy. The court has seen the evidence and has agreed that the Indian law has been violated and instructed Govt of India to sue Monsanto and its partner, which the Govt is now proceeding to do, but trying to find ways to scuttle the case as far as possible.
- Illegal introduction of GM crop : India does not have a good laboratory that can quickly check if a crop is GM or not. Taking advantage of that, a lot of GM crops have sneaked into the Indian food chain, such as imported snacks based on GM corn, GM soya etc. This is as such illegal, but the mechanism is not in place to check it and the law regarding safeguards are not properly implemented. There is a lack of awareness on these issues.
- Govt Policy on GM: Unfortunately, it is now a well known fact that Indian policy is being tuned to support American interests and to solve America’s problems rather than India’s own national interest. This is so well known that even Indian politicians accept it unofficially. This too is likely to be an election issue next year. Globalization has allowed an unprecedented level of influence by foreign corporations on national policy making of many countries.
- Indian Civil Society: It is also an emerging fact that, in spite of corruption, illiteracy and poverty that ravages India, the Indian Civil Society is likely doing a ground breaking job and achieving better success than almost anywhere else, in fighting the menace of GM crop issue.
- Golden Rice: The whole issue of Golden rice is a kind of hoax. It is touted as a solution to vitamin-A deficiency in the third world. It is patented technology, but the patent holder states it is not going to claim intellectual rights on it for now. Calculations show that a man might have to eat 15 Kg of this rice every day to get his normal daily needs of Vitamin-A. This is absurd. This means Vitamin-A has to be taken in primarily from other supplementary food and not from rice, either GM or organic. The aim may be for Golden rice to push out and make extinct all other major strains of rice. Once the competition is gone, then the patent holder begins to increase price of seed and demand intelectual rights to the seed.
- Science Research off base : Indian Govt has been, unfortunately, tuning its science research institutions to solve American problems and not Indian problems.
- Food supply : The main idea of the GM seed business plan is to control the world food supply – the biggest business in the world. It is not designed to solve either hunger or poverty. It is designed to establish a stranglehold and a monopoly on the world food supply.
The conversation was recorded and is given below in the Podcast. Click on the triangular play button. You may also find it in iTunes.
Dr. Bhargava has seen the above text and approves it. He can be contacted at : bhargava.pm@gmail.com
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