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BRAI seems to be only way out of present GM crops imbroglio by Shantu Shantaram


As the regulatory impasse continues after the sordid saga of the moratorium on Bt brinjal, another battle front has been opened by the anti-biotech activists demanding a complete withdrawal of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill. For them, they do not see anything good happening from any regulation that would facilitate safe deployment of modern biotech products. For them, “regulations” means “stop” or “kill” the technology.

Anti-technology activists have not seen a regulator they like because almost all regulators have approved modern day GM crops using proper scientific data and empirical evidence.

The only regulatory system they would like is the one that routinely rejects all applications of GM crops on the grounds of one test or another or for more “long term” tests.

The idea is to tie up GM crops technology development in regulatory knots to the yonder so that all purveyors of technology will quit in frustration or make it so prohibitive that no one will dare enter into the field. This is why anti-tech activists so love the Bt brinjal moratorium as a true example of “democratisation” of biotechnology, a phrase coined by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Hope that the government of India and the courts will not fall for this trick.

BRAI seems to be the only way out of the present GM crops imbroglio. It was crafted by a committee headed by none other than MS Swaminathan, at the behest of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) that was in turn was prompted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). MS Swaminathan invited a variety of stakeholders’ who endorsed his proposal for a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (NBRA).

After a couple of years, NBRA has now metamorphosed into BRAI. The Bill is being piloted by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which has given sufficient opportunity to all stakeholders to give their inputs.

After many rounds of inter-ministerial consultations, and the Union law ministry has signed off on the Bill.

It is slated to be tabled in the parliament in the coming monsoon session. Activists are rattled by a clause in the Bill that calls for penalty on those who carry out false propaganda about the technology just like a penalty clause that already exists for applicants in case they make a false claim. They are calling complete ban on this Bill, and now they are saying that the present GEAC is doing a fine job, just because GEAC housed in the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) is taking hesitant steps to commercialise GM food crops, and the minister has imposed an indefinite moratorium not too long ago.

The anti-GM lobby is fully conscious of the fact that they will lose each and every time best scientific principles are used to regulate GM crops, and they just don’t want that. They want a “political” body to that can be manipulated by decibel power.

In fact, anti-GM lobby does not like one bit of the recent decision of the European Commission to approve import of six genetically engineered maize that had been hanging in suspension for over decades because of the machinations of “green” lobby.

It is this kind of nonsensical regulatory approval system that anti-GM lobby loves, and its followers in India would like to have in the country.

There is nothing undemocratic about holding all stakeholders and the regulatory authority to high technical and ethical standards, and the government should not buckle down on the “dirty” pressure tactics of the anti-GM lobby to loosen the “responsibility and accountability” clause.

In no way, this clause takes away the democratic rights of conscious objection. It will only make them play the role of a truly responsible civil society. The government should push for the Parliamentary passage of this Bill post haste, and start implementing the law soon.