Greenpeace mocks Kapil Sibal; says a nexus of policy makers and private companies pose serious threat to country’s bio-safety

A mock shop for selling transgenic vegetables was also set up by the activists with an activist wearing a mask of Mr Sibal selling models of GE vegetables.

“Why should the Ministry Of Science and Technology take such efforts to hide a scientific evidence which has tremendous impact on public health and safety, unless there is fear of getting caught red handed over manipulated and doctored data?” asks jai Krishna,   Campaigner, Sustainable Agriculture, Greenpeace India. “The Government should pay more attention to people’s health and environmental safety rather than nurturing alliances with companies like Mahyco”, added Jai Krishna,

In the past, Greenpeace has expressed concerns over the authorities’ relying on safety tests which are either done by the company or outsourced to other private agencies.. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) which is under Mr Sibal’s ministry, has refused to disclose safety data on transgenic crops for any independent analysis, despite a Right To Information (RTI) petition filed by Divya Raghunandan of Greenpeace in 2006. , The case was later heard by the Chief Information Commission which overruled the DBT’s contention and directed the department to divulge the data in public interest.  Now, two years hence the orginal request has been made, the company, Mahyco has approached Delhi High Court against CIC’s directive pleading that the disclosure of this information would hurt its competitive interest. Last week, Divya Raghunandan has also filed her response to the Delhi High court in this case. The case is scheduled for 23rd April.

“The court should consider public interest over commercial interest even if commercial interest of a company is jeopardized. And given the fact that this is a case where there is no information available regarding the safety of consumers or the viability of the crops as far as farmers are concerned, it is the public interest that has to be regarded as far more important than the private interest of the company,” said Dr. Amit sengupta, of All India Peoples Science Network. 

‘The UN Agricultural Assessment Report launched last Tuesday raises concerns on the safety of GE crops to health and environment and clearly says that they are no solution to food security. We hope that in light of this report prepared by 400 eminent scientists over a period of three years, Government of India will re-visit its GE policies. As the science and technology ministry seems to ignore all the writing on the wall we strongly urge the Health Minstry to step in and save us from this large scale feeding trial  ", added Jai Krishna