The Inter-Academy Report on GM crops has been put together by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy (INSA), National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), Indian National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences (India)—the bodies to which the cream of India’s scientists belongs.
Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh and Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan had commissioned the academies to assess the safety and viability of growing GM crops in the wake of countrywide protests over the approval for Bt brinjal, the first GM food crop that would have been commercialised in India.
The report, first released in September 2010, became notorious for having plagiarised a paper written by a crop developer (see ‘Sham Science’, Down To Earth, October 16-31, 2010). It was also shoddy—there were no citations or references. Nor did it say who were consulted and how the report arrived at its conclusions. Ramesh had dismissed the 25-page report, saying “it does not appear to be the product of rigorous scientific evaluation”.
The updated report has been tidied up. There are references (119 of them) and a list of those who attended the June 1, 2010, meeting, the only one held to discuss this important issue. In addition, eight presentations that were made at the meeting have been put up on the INSA website but have not been annexed to the report. That’s as far as the changes go; the content remains more or less the same. Far from having redeemed themselves, the academies appear in even poorer light because the report is rife with “sweeping, unsubstantiated and superficial statements” according to many of the scientists that Down To Earth spoke to. Some described the new report as “juvenile and trivial”.
“For the most part, it is still onesided, strongly favouring vested interests and seed companies rather than accepting valid scientific, environmental and health considerations against Bt brinjal,” said P C Kesavan, distinguished fellow of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation of Chennai.
“Many inconvenient references have either been omitted or explained away.” Kesavan was one of the 46 scientists present at the June 1 meeting, and he is scathing about the “scientific imprecision that characterises the report”. Here is one example from several that he cited from the report: “‘Hybrids of organisms contain genomes derived from both parents’.
Does it mean that pure line crops and breeds do not contain genomes derived from both parents? I wrote to the Academy but it has not responded.” Kesavan has a distinguished career including stints with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Jawaharlal Nehru University as the dean of its School of Life Sciences.
