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Genetically-modified (GM) mustard appears to be creating a rift within the ruling BJP.
An arm of the Gujarat government, also led by the BJP, has written to the Prime Minister, seeking a halt to a possible environmental release of the controversial transgenic crop.
“This GM mustard happens to be a herbicide-tolerant GMO developed with nearly ₹100 crore of our taxpayers’ funds.
“Very often, it is being argued that since it is a public sector product, India should allow it, forgetting that what is inherently unsafe (created through transgenic technology) is bound to be unsafe whether it is from the public sector or private sector,” said the letter by Vallabhbhai Kathiria, Chairman of the Gauseva & Gauchar Vikas Board.
The letter from the organisation, which is an arm of the Gujarat government’s Agriculture, Farmer’s Welfare and Co-operation Department, has been endorsed by 34 high-profile names, such as Former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, Public Health Physician and activist Mira Shiva and Former Deputy Director of the National Institute of Nutrition Veena Shatrugna.
Even as the body has questioned the safety of herbicide-tolerant transgenic crop, the main concern raised is the lack of adequate testing to ensure safety. “In the case of GM mustard sought to be introduced in India, evidence points to the fact that even the limited number of tests that were done on Bt brinjal (it was because of these tests and the results being made public that Bt brinjal was found to be unsafe and put under a moratorium) were not taken up for GM mustard safety assessment,” the letter said, adding that tests were not conducted for chronic toxicity.
The letter also suggested that some “significant differences” found during the tests conducted between GM mustard and other control groups were “simply brushed aside as issues with the experimental design itself rather than perform the experiment rigorously.”
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