Anti-GM groups protest against commercial release of GM

Members of 150 organisations from across the country today converged at Jantar Mantar protesting against genetically modified mustard and threatened to launch a nationwide agitation if the hybrid is approved for commercial release.
Under the banner of 'Sarson Satyagraha', representatives of political parties, farmer unions, trade unions, industry representatives, scientists, women's rights bodies and civil society members pledged to "thwart" efforts to approve the controversial GM Mustard.
The protest saw the participation of 150 organisations from across India, including 29 national-level organisations and alliances like RSS affiliate Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, Bhartiya Kisan Union, All India Kisan Sabha, Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA).

"It is clear that all sections of our society and state governments are realising the impending dangers of this HT GM Mustard. This resistance movement will only get stronger and it is very likely that the government will find itself in the same situation as with the land ordinance," Kavitha Kuruganti of ASHA said.
A statement issued by Kuruganti said a video message by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was also played at the protest in which he said the farmers were being hoaxed by bringing in GM crops in their name while reminding the Prime Minister that Bihar has always opposed GM crops.

Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra who was also present at the present asked why the Centre was not listening to its allies such as Bhartiya Kisan Sangh and Swadeshi Jagran Manch.

He said the Aam Aadmi Party fully supports the struggle against GM crops and that the Jashn-e-Sarson festival which was organised by the Delhi government in September received a tremendous response from people.
Yudhvir Singh of Bharatiya Kisan Union stressed that real farmer organisations had never asked for GM crops and Ratan Lal of Bhartiya Kisan Sangh said the threat posed by GM crops was similar to that caused by East India Company which gradually colonised the entire country and added that farmers should fight together to stop SGM crops.

Thirinavukkarasu of the All India Agricultural workers
Union claimed that there was contradiction in government policies as on one hand, thousands of crores were being spent for creating rural employment under schemes like the NREGS and on the other technologies like herbicide tolerant (HT) crops were being promoted.
The statement said it is estimated that if GM mustard is adopted on even a low 25 per cent of mustard cultivation area, it would result in an approximate employment loss of 4.25 crore person-days in rural areas which will have impact on major mustard growing states, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana which are BJP-ruled states.

It said a misleading argument has been formed around India consuming imported GM oil which is also the rationale for approving commercial cultivation in the country.
"We have strongly objected to the decisions to allow import of GM canola and GM soybean oil. These are untested products and lack of any scientific research on adverse impacts of such consumption cannot be construed to be a proof of safety.
"Even so, the imported GM oil constitutes only around 10-11 per cent of India's edible oil consumption. In fact, imported GM canola oil is less than 2 per cent of our total consumption.

"Furthermore, an argument around consumption of imported oil cannot be an argument for allowing cultivation which brings with it other serious issues of impact on agriculture and environment, especially given that this is a herbicide tolerant crop," the statement said.