This is blatant indeed. Government agencies are telling the top regulatory body to dilute its rules to benefit the seed industry. The seed industry is naturally lobbying for this dilution because the more lax the rules and regulations, the better off they are. But why is the agriculture ministry and the RCGM lobbying for the seed industry's benefit?
Almost all the crops in the pipeline, the 300-odd Bt cotton hybrids and the infamous Bt brinjal and everything following these (Bt rice, Bt okra, Bt tomato… and so on) are products being developed by Mahyco-Monsanto. There is not a single public sector GM variety or hybrid to be seen anywhere. The shameful fudging by government scientists on the allegedly public sector Bt cotton — the Bt Bikaneri Narma — is known to all. So why are the eager beavers in the agriculture ministry and the RCGM falling over themselves to make the seed industry happy… the farmers be damned? Should one smell a rat here?
If the RCGM is ignorant of the Indian Constitution, surely the agriculture ministry with its myriad bureaucrats and one of the most knowledgeable ministers in the Cabinet knows better? Agriculture is a state subject; just about everyone who has gone to high school knows that.
Nothing pertaining to agriculture can be dictated by the Centre and no action related to this field can be implemented in the states without their express consent. So the audacity and defiance that we are witnessing is breathtaking, especially since both the RCGM and the agriculture ministry are asking for the suspension of the mandatory “no-objection certificate" (NOC) before field trials of genetically manipulated crops can be conducted in the states. Read the full report here.
Source: by Suman Sahai, Deccan Chronicle.
