Bt brinjal is back on the regulator’s plate

India will soon press some “independent scientists” to address concerns over Bt brinjal, but regulators ruled out the possibility of additional safety tests. Questions surrounding the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food, numbering over 600, had led to a moratorium on it, reports Zia Haq.

India will soon press some “independent scientists” to address concerns over Bt brinjal, but regulators ruled out the possibility of additional safety tests. Questions surrounding the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food, numbering over 600, had led to a moratorium on it.

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Three months after environment minister Jairam Ramesh indefinitely deferred Bt brinjal’s launch until “independent tests prove it safe”, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), India’s biotech regulator, took up the issue at a closed-door meeting on Wednesday.

The GEAC decided to prepare a “background paper” on 640 red flags or concerns cited by five prominent scientists —M.S. Swaminathan, P.M. Bhargava, Madhav Gadgil, Vijayan and G. Padmanabhan — during public consultations, which ultimately led to a freeze on Bt brinjal.

Alongside, the GEAC will bring in “five or six” independent scientists — not linked to any government agency involved in scientific decision-making — to address those concerns and also decide if these safety issues are scientifically valid in the first place.

Supreme Court-appointed GEAC member P.M. Bhargava, a renowned molecular biologist opposed to GM crops, told HT that the GEAC would now "re-look" into how Bt brinjal was approved and more safety tests would be carried out. GEAC co-chairperson Arjula Reddy, however, ruled this out. “There is no question of any decision on additional tests,” he said.

Ananth Kumar, a key GEAC member who heads the National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, said that new tests were not possible unless these are required by India’s testing protocol.

Civil advocacy groups want Bt brinjal to be subjected to more critical tests currently not required by Indian laws.

The GEAC’s approach — of point-by-point rebuttal of safety concerns rather than re-examining tests already done—could soon see various stakeholders go round in circles again.