Javadekar in a cleft stick over GM crop future

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar has been in a bind over the future of genetically modified food crops as the PMO wants field trials — an important step before commercial release — of GM crops to be fast-tracked while the RSS is opposing this move.

Updated on: Aug 1, 2014, 02:09:39 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Environment minister Prakash Javadekar has been in a bind over the future of genetically modified food crops as the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) wants field trials — an important step before commercial release — of GM crops to be fast-tracked while the RSS affiliate groups are opposing any such move.

The environment ministry was in the process of giving approval to field trials of 15 GM crops including chicken pea, rice and brinjal when RSS affiliated organizations Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) approached Javadekar and opposed approval to the trials.

“Until the issues concerning GM crops are addressed, no approval should be given,” Ashwini Mahajan, national convenor of SJM said. Mahajan’s words were echoed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan in a letter to Javadekar. Bhushan has argued against the GM crops in a public interest litigation filed with the Supreme Court.

Many other left oriented anti-GM crop groups have written to Javadekar opposing any approval to open field trials of GM crops, bringing Left and Right wing organisations together on the issue.

But ministry officials told HT that it was in the process of giving final approval to the field trials of some GM crops recommended by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, country’s bio-tech regulator.

“There was pressure on fast clearance of the varieties and therefore the files were processed,” an official said. Former environment minister, Jayanthi Natarajan, had kept the trials in abeyance citing a Supreme Court order, a claim later refuted by the ministry.

Gujarat, with Narendra Modi as chief minister, was among the first states to issue ‘no objection’ to allowing field trials of GM crops.

Maharashtra and Punjab also allowed the trials. Many others like Bihar and Karnataka have refused trials and on Thursday, Tamil Nadu joined the club too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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