Jairam Ramesh today led another line of assault, saying government scientists who had dared to oppose the introduction of Bt brinjal were being harassed. At the same time, senior agricultural scientists have started to openly attack Ramesh on the decision.
“I have independent reports from ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) scientists that those who raised even mild queries on introduction of Bt brinjal are now being harassed,” said Ramesh.
The Deputy Director General of ICAR, Swapan Datta, denied it. He said no ICAR scientist had any dissenting view on Bt brinjal. “I don’t know if any ICAR scientist would disagree.” He said the science was sound. “It is written on the wall. Science will prevail.”
Referring to the approval of the commercialisation of Bt brinjal by the scientific body, Datta said, it had received the go-ahead from top authorities. “The agriculture minister endorsed it, the minister of state endorsed it, the Minister for Science and Technology endorsed it and the Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, endorsed it.”
Asked if he agreed with the environment minister’s view that public-funded effort had to be encouraged in biotechnology in agriculture, Datta said: “If the Ministry of Environment thinks so, it should come up with a $5 billion investment so we can design crop research.”
The senior government scientist added: “In my office no one knows if we got any money from the Minister of Environment. He should put some money on science. I would love to have some money from him.”