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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Left licks lips for GM fruit

Left licks lips for GM fruit

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published Published on Jan 2, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 2, 2011

A powerful central CPM leader has said “it is superstitious to completely oppose” genetically modified seeds, a shift that goes against the Left Front stand in Bengal that has a high stake in the debate.

“It is superstitious to completely oppose these kinds of seeds. Such seeds could be used after thoroughly ensuring through tests that they would not harm human beings, animals and plants,” S. Ramachandran Pillai, CPM politburo member, told a seminar in Kerala.

He said many countries, including China, had been using such seeds for increasing crop production.

Pillai, known as SRP and considered close to CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, is also the all-India president of the party’s farm wing, the Kisan Sabha.

The nuanced statement is in contrast with the usually strident voices that GM crops evoke in the CPM, although the party has qualified its opposition by saying more tests need to be carried out before endorsing the technology.

The topic holds particular significance for Bengal, which accounts for around 30 per cent of the brinjal output in the country. Brinjal is one of the vegetables at the centre of the GM debate.

At the height of a raucous road show last year to gauge the public mood on GM crops, Left politicians in Bengal as well as some agricultural scientists had said the state’s advantage would fade away as farmers would have to depend on “seeds from multinational companies”.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who had initiated the national debate, had then said: “The chief ministers of Bengal and Bihar have told me their agricultural commissions are against the introduction of (genetically modified) brinjal.”

So sensitive had the topic become that a decision on allowing commercial cultivation of BT brinjal has been put on hold. A nervous Congress leadership, reluctant to stir a hornet’s nest on an issue concerning farmers, also soft-pedalled, although the UPA government is said to be in favour of trying out the crop.

In Calcutta, CPM central committee member Benoy Konar said today: “We want GM crops to be certified by India-based agricultural research institutes before they are introduced here. We shall oppose introduction of GM crops if they are merely certified by foreign firms.”

He said the party would welcome GM crops if “we are satisfied they would not affect our environment”.

It is too early to say if SRP’s comments signal the start of a rethink in the CPM. But it was clear that SRP was speaking after some thought. He said exploitation of farmers by multinationals — the avowed reason for the Left opposition —could be checked by distributing the seeds through public sector agencies.

If he was looking for a ground to test-fire an idea, he could not have chosen a better place than Kerala. Matters such as GM crops and geopolitics, which may be seen as esoteric in some parts of the country, strike a deep chord in the state and evoke vocal responses.

Today was no different. The CPI, which has been tormenting the Big Brother in the run-up to elections, hit back. Kerala farm minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran of the CPI said there was no evidence to show that GM crops would benefit agriculture.


The Telegraph, 3 January, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110103/jsp/frontpage/story_13384401.jsp


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