Now, Pawar stirs the Bt brinjal pot
PM convenes meeting to sort out differences in the Cabinet
With a clear division in the Union Cabinet on the introduction of genetically-modified brinjal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting on Wednesday to take a decision after discussing both sides of the controversy with his sparring colleagues.
Even though Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh put a moratorium on Bt brinjal, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is solidly backing the GM eggplant.
The agriculture minister wrote a six-page letter to the prime minister strongly advocating why GM crops were required because of the immense challenges of feeding more than a billion population with limited cultivable land and water availability. Because of their increased yield and reduced crop-loss due to pest attacks, biotech crops are being increasingly seen as a meaningful option to achieve food security.
“The recent decision regarding Bt Brinjal must not be seen as a setback to our efforts,” Pawar stated last week at a conference here.
Pawar is being supported by the Union Science Minister Prithviraj Chavan who said that Bt brinjal is safe for commercialisation and there is no threat of Bt gene polluting the naturally-occurring brinjal varieties.
On the other side are a large number of voluntary organisations and more than 10 states including those which produce maximum brinjal in India. They have fears on the crop’s biosafety and long-term health benefits.
Three of India’s leading brinjal producing states – West Bengal (30 per cent production), Orissa (20 per cent) and Bihar (11 per cent) – have opposed Bt brinjal.
Other opposing states are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. The Congress at the moment is not willing to lock horns with the states on GM crop issue. All these issues will be high on Manmohan Singh’s mind when he sits down with Pawar and Chavan on Wednesday to take a considerate view on the controversy.
