Reacting to media’s question that in which direction his BT Brinjal consultations were heading on, Central Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said: “the states of Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal that enjoy 60% Brinjal growing area in the country have opposed introduction of BT Brinjal. Adding to this, most of the people have doubts and fear about introduction of BT Brinjal. We will keep these points in mind while deciding fate of BT Brinjal in India.” Jairam who was in Ahmedabad to seek their public opinion on introduction of BT Brinjal in India was surprised to learn that there was no opinion on BT Brinjal coming in from the Gujarat government.

During the consultation process, Jairam announced several times whether there was anyone present from the Government of Gujarat! But he was surprised to find that there was nobody representing the state government officially. “The Gujarat govt has signed multi million MOUs with multinational seed manufacturer company – Mhyco Monsanto, how do you expect a neutral opinion of Gujarat govt in this issue?” a farmer shouted in the auditorium and made everyone smile.

It should be mentioned here that Gujarat Agro Corporation’s IAS officer D.Thara was present in the consultation function but she left it mid-way after a phone call. Principal Secretary of state Environment department, Mr. Nanda(IAS) was present in the function just as a part of protocol. He refrained from talking anything on BT Brinjal on behalf of Government of Gujarat. One person, Director of Gujarat Government’s Seed Corporation stood up to speak about BT Brinjal, but said he was giving his personal opinion only. “Will you able to join your work tomorrow,?” Jairam asked him. While two scientists of Anand Agriculture University supported BT Brinjal, based on their experiments according to them, one scientist from the same university protested introduction of BT Brinjal. The two scientists who supported BT Brinjal later clarified that the third one opposing BT Brinjal was actually a scientist from the Paddy branch of the university and had nothing to do with Brinjal or any vegetable crop. One senior representative of Sardar Patel University opposed BT Brinjal. He said, “I had a guest from Italy. When I hosted dinner for her, and catered a dish made from Brinjal, she asked me whether I had used BT Brinjal or a natural one? She was ready to eat that dish only after I clarified that it was not BT-Brinjal. Sonia Gandhi is also from Italy and therefore you should not approve BT Brinjal. It is banned in Europe.”

At the consultation venue, Jairam Ramesh said, GAEC had recommended BT Brinjal’s commercial launch in India. However without taking all concerned people into consideration, the government would not allow BT Brinjal’s launching. The government has not finalized introduction of BT Brinjal in India as of now. “I have sought opinion of 60 world renown scientists. I have also asked Chief Ministers of various states to express their views on this issue. We have selected seven cities for consultation. Kolkota and Bhuvneshwar were selected because of dominating Brinjal growing belt that they have. Hyderabad and Bangalore were selected because of good amount of presence of scientists in these two cities. Ahmedabad and Nagpur are chosen because these two places have rich experience of BT Cotton. Chandigadh has been chosen because it is important northern city. After consultations, opinions and feedback we will take decision on BT Brinjal before end of February 2010. I am planning to submit a report to the Prime Minister around 20th February,” added Ramesh addressing large amount of concerned people gathered to participate in consultation process.

Most of the BT Cotton user farmers repeatedly said that while BT Cotton was good initially, the production of BT cotton later decreased year by year. “After BT Cotton’s entry, universities stopped any more research on hybrid and local varieties. Monsanto controls 66% Cotton seed market now. Once you introduce BT, it proves an irrecoverable step. Sowing BT damages soil quality. BT variety assures protection from only one pest, but for others we would have to use chemical pesticides anyway. There are 2500 varieties of Brinjal and Brinjal is Indian crop. Introducing BT Brinjal is equal to introducing mono culture in this area. The people would not have any choice or any selection while buying Brinjal. It would be virtually impossible to introduce different markings for BT Brinjal and non BT one. As BT Brinjal is food crop, it should be tested similar to standards of drug trial,” farmers said.