Bihar CM Nitish Kumar urges PM to overrule clearance to GM mustard

Amid reports of clearance given to GM mustard by a government panel, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to overrule the approval considering its ill effects on human health.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Kumar has sought Modi's intervention to immediately overrule the clearance to GM mustard seeds given by a technical panel of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee.

He expressed apprehension that approval to GM mustard would open a gate to several genetically modified food crops being developed by the public as well private-research bodies like GM rice, maize, rice, brinjal, wheat, tomato among others which are at various stages of the approval process.

Kumar said GM mustard was an herbicide tolerant (HT) crop. Any gene making the plant resistant to an herbicide locks farmers into using select brands of agro-chemicals. The full adverse implications of HT crops are apparent world over.

"It is unclear why this herbicide tolerant (HT) GM mustard, which seeks to promote itself as a hybridization technology, is even being considered by the Government of India when we already have non-GM hybrids available?" he wondered.

He said, "I had already writtent to Union forest minister in January, 2016 pointing out that when the interested parties have failed to win the confidence of the farmers of the country, they are pushing the technology through public institutions. It is surprising that this so called public sector GM mustard came into being a year after a MNC's GM mustard was rejected by the Indian regulators in 2002."

Strongly opposing genetic modification of crops, the Bihar Chief Minister Bihar told the Prime Minister that Bt cotton, which had been cultivated in the country for 15 years now demonstrated amply that GM was a failed technology.

"Bollworm, a cotton pest for which GM technology was brought in for pest control has developed resistance against the Bt cotton and is able to survive and wreak havoc on Bt cotton crop. Thousands of farmers have incurred losses in the country due to this," he told the Prime Minister in the letter.

Reminding Modi about stress given by him on cooperative federalism and need to uphold federal policy, he said, "This issue of GM crops is an important area where this has to be demonstrated urgently."

"If the Government of India approves GM crops such as GM mustard which is an important crop for states like Bihar, the state will not be able to escape the consequences of the technology as we are also the leading producer of honey in India and honey production depends on the mustard crop," he said.

Kumar urged the Prime Minister to see that no decision on GM crops should be taken in haste, which can harm the interest of farmers and the people of India at large.

"The interested parties are trying to push in an unproven technology. The states must have a decisive say in the use of the technology and any dubious technology should not be thrust on the farmers," he said.

"The government of India should mandatorily consult and seek no objection from the state government before conducting field trials of any GM crop," Kumar urged Modi.

He also sought the Prime Minister's intervention to see that the attempt to commercially release genetically modified mustard variety in the country should not proceed any further without prior consultation and consent of the state government.