Scientists, activists are locked in

Deepak Pental, former vice-chancellor of Delhi University and currently director of the university's Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, is as controversial as scientists can get in India. He has come under flak from fellow scientists who ripped apart his paper Detrimental effect of expression of Bt endotoxin Cry1Ac on in vitro regeneration, in vivo growth and development of tobacco and cotton transgenics (written with 10 other scientists) and published in the June 2011 issue of the Journal of Biosciences. However, the lobby against genetically modified (GM) crops loved it because it bolstered their case and they distributed the paper widely. But Pental continues to be in the cross-hair of the anti-GM activists who oppose his GM mustard (Brassica juncea) and its field trials in Rajasthan. Pental, who has spent the last 16 years developing this mustard, returns the compliment by calling the activists hysterical people you cannot communicate with . In an interview to Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood, the geneticist says both scientists and activists are locked into their respective positions, making rational debate impossible. Even scientists, he says, are not willing to discuss issues related with transgenics candidly

Those who oppose GM crops have valid apprehensions.

We need to be critical of these people. What is the solution they are giving? I don’t understand why the government is so afraid of them and who subscribes to their views. Before raising such an outcry, they should try to give an alternative solution. Did anybody ask NGOs and activists, can you please develop something and give it to farmers as an alternative to Bt cotton? Their job is just to condemn and give narratives. As a scientist, people will say that I’m giving a contrarian view on Bt cotton in case I don’t supportit. But as a scientist I have to provide an alternative.

They have the support of international scientists. In fact, some of the anti-GM activists are scientists themselves

The point is that such people are locked in—they have to reject it—just as we scientists are locked in by a particular way of thinking. Some months ago, I had published a paper stating that Bt gene (Cry 1Ac) is toxic to the plant. Why we did that is because we believe that truth should prevail. Bt toxin per se is not toxic to anybody, but when you put it in the plant it decreases the yield by 10 to 15 per cent. Nobody wants to accept it. People now accuse me of diluting the case for transgenic crops.