Farmers, activists seek transparent public consultation on GM crops as per Supreme Court order

Counterview Desk

Seeking widespread democratic consultative processes, as per the Supreme Court Order on GM crops, the advocacy group GM Free India has issued a letter endorsed by hundreds of citizens to the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, for evolving a national policy on GM crops.

The letter, floated by Sridhar Radhakrishnan (Trivandrum) and Dr Rajinder Chaudhary (Advisor, Kudrati Kheti Abhiyan, Rohtak, Haryana), insists that the 2-judge Bench order of the Supreme Court on 23rd July 2024 should be implemented in letter and spirit, as it is a matter that "affects all citizens of the country."

Text:

This is with regard to the Supreme Court’s direction to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to evolve a national policy on GM crops through consultative processes with all stakeholders. We, as citizens of India as well as representatives of farmers’ organisations, environmental groups, consumer organisations, industry and exporters’ associations, scientific experts in different domains of S&T, are writing this letter to you to ensure that the order of the SC be implemented in letter and spirit by widespread and meaningful consultations with all citizens who want to give their inputs into the policy formulation process.

We are reminded of the public consultations organised by Mr Jairam Ramesh, former Environment Minister in the then UPA government in the case of Bt brinjal environmental release for commercial cultivation in India. That deliberative democratic process that was run in the country at that time was historical and unprecedented. Between October 15th 2009 and December 31st 2009, written inputs were obtained, followed by seven in-person consultations during the month of January 2010, culminating in a decision on February 9th 2010. 6,000 citizens registered and participated in the 7 consultations covering different regions of India, and more than 9000 written submissions were presented to Mr Ramesh. The Minister personally sat through and chaired over 25 hours of consultations to understand all concerns, evidence, insights and analyses. Along with him were officials and regulators, as well as various state government representatives in these consultations. The participation was from agriculture and health/medical/nutrition experts, scientists from the fields of biotechnology and molecular biology, farmers, farmer leaders, consumer rights activists, environmentalists and ecologists, social activists, industry representatives, exporters, practitioners of Indian Systems of Medicine, people representing other agri-allied livelihoods etc. Mr Jairam Ramesh later described what he did as being “responsible to science and responsive to society”, and that is what policy-making in this domain ought to be. Many signatories to this letter participated in those public consultations of 2010.

Against this background, we write to you with the full confidence that you will not fail the citizens of India in their expectations with regard to the implementation of the Supreme Court's Order.

We seek the following things specifically with regard to the consultative processes to be adopted, so as to enable all of us to participate meaningfully.

Jairam Ramesh, former Environment Minister, had organised historical consultation in 2008 on Bt brinjal's environmental release

1. That public consultations should be well publicised in local languages in all prominent local newspapers, visual media and websites and done so well in advance giving at least three weeks’ notice to the public. Giving adequate publicity was ordered by the Hon’ble Court. “Wide and meaningful consultations”, were the terms used elsewhere in the judgement.

2. Such consultations should be held in all states of the country, to allow the in-person participation of all stakeholders including the state government representatives. Some large states like UP might require more regional consultations too within the state. Let the locations represent various kinds of political parties in power in the state government so that no allegation of partisanship emerges later on.

3. Consultations should be open for all citizens to provide their inputs as was the case during the public consultations on Bt brinjal in 2009-2010, and should not be restricted to a select few who are invited.

4. Consultations should ensure that all stakeholders are involved proactively and systematically, including farmers’ organisations, consumer organisations, environmentalists, ecologists, beekeepers, agricultural worker unions, practitioners and experts of Indian Systems of Medicine, organic/natural farming associations and practitioners, organic farming enterprises, exporters and traders etc.

5. Consultations should include local language inputs for the policy formulation.

6. Consultations should be video-recorded and archived in the public domain.

7. Meaningful public consultation processes should also include a mechanism for receiving feedback, detailed or otherwise, in writing (email, or on a portal) from the public. All written feedback should be scanned and uploaded on the web sites.

8. To actively reach out to multiple stakeholders and facilitate their participation, the Government of India might consider engaging an organisation like Centre for Environment Education (CEE) as was done during the Bt brinjal consultations. At that time, CEE also compiled all the feedback received into a report that was put out into the public domain by MoEFCC.

We conclude by requesting you once again to be truly participatory and consultative in the policy formulation process, other than drawing from the other detailed processes run by other high-level committees in the past.

---

Click here for signatories

Comments

Modi govt distancing from Adanis? MoEFCC 'defers' 1500 MW project in Western Ghats

By Rajiv Shah Is the Narendra Modi government, in its third but what would appear to be a weaker avatar, seeking to show that it would keep a distance, albeit temporarily, from its most favorite business house, the Adanis? It would seem so if the latest move of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) latest to "defer" the Adani Energy’s application for 1500 MW Warasgaon-Warangi Pump Storage Project is any indication.

India’s climate tech ecosystem in dire need of both early, growth-stage funding: Report

By Our Representative India’s climate tech ecosystem, which boasts over 800 startups, is in dire need of both early and growth-stage funding to leverage its full potential, according to a report by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (Ventures) and MUFG Bank , Japan. Despite a robust initial funding landscape, with approximately two-thirds of climate tech startups receiving seed capital, growth-stage investments remain critically lacking.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded reaction in the form of a link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

Bayer's business model: 'Monopoly control over chemicals, seeds'

By Bharat Dogra* The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has rendered a great public service by very recently publishing a report titled ‘Bayer’s Toxic Trails’ which reveals how the German agrochemical giant Bayer has been lobbying hard to promote glyphosate and GMOs, or trying to “capture public policy to pursue its private interests.” This report, written by Joao Camargo and Hans Van Scharen, follows Bayer’s toxic trail as “it maintains monopolistic control of the seed and pesticides markets, fights off regulatory challenges to its toxic products, tries to limit legal liability, and exercises political influence.”

105,000 sign protest petition, allege Nestlé’s 'double standard' over added sugar in baby food

By Kritischer Konsum* 105,000 people have signed a petition calling on Nestlé to stop adding sugar to its baby food products marketed in lower-income countries. It was handed over today at the multinational’s headquarters in Vevey, where the NGOs Public Eye, IBFAN and EKO dumped the symbolic equivalent of 10 million sugar cubes, representing the added sugar consumed each day by babies fed with Cerelac cereals. In Switzerland, such products are sold with no added sugar. The leading baby food corporation must put an end to this harmful double standard.

UNEP report on how climate crisis is impacting displacement, global conflicts, declining health

By Shankar Sharma* A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), titled "A Global Foresight Report on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing," warrants urgent attention from our country’s developmental perspective. The findings, detailed in the report, should be a source of significant concern not only globally but especially for our nation, which has a vast population and limited natural resources.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah* The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.

Militants, with ten times number of arms compared to those in J&K, 'roaming freely' in Manipur

By Sandeep Pandey* The violence which shows no sign of abating in the ongoing Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur is a matter of concern. The alienation of the two communities and hatred generated for each other is unprecedented. The Meiteis cannot leave Manipur by road because the next district North on the way to Kohima in Nagaland is Kangpokpi, a Kuki dominated area where the young Kuki men and women are guarding the district borders and would not let any Meitei pass through the national highway.

Search This Blog