Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Trials and
regulations
he promise and performance of genetically
modied crops in agriculture is once again
under the spotlight, with the sanction given by
the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
for conned eld trials of several food crops. In its last
days, the UPA government decided to end the moratorium on trial cultivation of these engineered varieties, and
to allow experiments aimed at generating biosafety data.
The GEAC has now taken further steps to allow eld
trials of rice, brinjal, mustard, chickpea and cotton, and
import of GM soyabean oil. Clearly, there can be no
credible argument against scientic experiments in
agriculture that advance the goal of developing plant
varieties that can withstand drought, resist pests and
raise yields to feed the growing world population. But
this should be done through a transparent regulatory
process that is free of ethical conicts. Proponents of
GM crops funding research in agricultural universities
represents one such conict. To aid transparency, research ndings should be made available in the public
domain for independent study. But India has taken only
halting steps towards establishing a strong regulatory
system; the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2013, which provided for multi-level scientic
assessments and an appellate tribunal, has lapsed.
While the Central government has not permitted the
commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal in India, the recent
case of neighbouring Bangladesh shows that regulatory
mechanisms must be put in place before such crops are
grown, whether for research or for the market and
they must be functional. Although the licence to produce the crop in Bangladesh required that the GM variety be isolated from indigenous ones to prevent genetic
contamination, the condition was not followed. Field
trials in India, in which the State governments have a
say, must ensure that there are sufficient safeguards
against such violations. If GM food is allowed to be sold
to consumers, they must have the right to know what
they are buying, and labelling should be made mandatory. Here again, the Bangladesh experience shows that
such a condition may be difficult to enforce. There is no
consensus on the performance of GM crops and the
results have been mixed. They have had some benecial
impact on tillage practices and in terms of curbing the
use of insecticides, but as the Union of Concerned Scientists in the U.S. points out, they have created monocultures and may be affecting birds and bees. All this
underscores the need for a cautious approach one that
fosters scientic inquiry, allows for scrutiny and is underpinned by regulation. Enacting a comprehensive law
that covers all aspects of GM crops should be a priority.
and pesticides, nor does the Sustainable Development and Climate Change chapter say
anything about the need to reduce emissions
from fertilizer use. Indeed, the Union budget
makes an increased allocation for the fertilizer subsidy, ignoring the repeated advice from
both within and outside government to begin
moving towards organic, ecological fertilization measures (it does have a token provision
of Rs.100 crore for organic farming in northNo solutions
east India, peanuts when compared to the
Unfortunately, as in the case of previous Rs.70,000 crore plus subsidy for chemical
budgets and economic surveys, the few con- fertilizers). Nowhere in the survey are the
cessions given to securing our environmental issues of dryland farming or the importance
Sustainability
A lot more could be said about the ecological bankruptcy of the Economic Survey; for
instance, how can anyone gauge whether we
are moving any closer to sustainability in the
complete absence of any indicators to measure this? But let us move now towards the
budget Mr. Jaitley presented on July 10. Astonishingly, his 43-page budget speech is
deafeningly silent on sustainable development, forests, wildlife, biodiversity, ecology.
It is as if a quarter of the country that contains forests and grasslands and wetlands
and other ecosystems, and the 500 million
people directly dependent on these, simply
do not exist for the purposes of deciding
where the countrys money is to be allocated.
Tribal welfare does get a substantial alloca-
CARTOONSCAPE
Dress, decency
and good sense
hange is the only constant, they say. But exceptions abound, and one of those is the dress
code in that pillar of the establishment the
private social club. A Chennai club recently
denied admission to a Madras High Court judge as he
was wearing a dhoti. The incident has quite rightly
sparked outrage. Across the country, clubs, especially
those that boast a vintage of more than six decades,
require men to wear shirts with collars, trousers, and
shoes or closed sandals or at times lounge suits. Indian
dress, however formal or decorous, for men is a strict
no-no. Despite its obviously colonial and discriminatory nature, clubs have refused to dump this rule, citing
hoary traditions. The long list of those who have fallen
victim to it includes former Supreme Court judge V.R.
Krishna Iyer, and the late M.F. Husain. The establishment today has its own sartorial choices, the halfsleeve kurta being the latest addition to the widely
prevalent dhoti and pyjama. It is beyond comprehension that recreational organisations run by those who
are the establishment should be so behind the times.
Indeed, a few clubs have cottoned on, and have different dress rules for members and guests, and different
levels of formality for different areas on their premises.
But why blame the clubs alone for not changing? After
all, despite all the criticism of their rules, membership
in these clubs is highly coveted and the queues to get in
keep getting longer. Several professions, too, have formal dress requirements that may seem anachronistic
and indeed strange.
After the latest episode in Chennai provoked sharp
responses from across the political spectrum, the Tamil Nadu government promised to bring a new law
against dress regulations in social clubs that discriminated against Indian attire. That, however, would be
going too far. Clubs are private organisations where
members have the right to set their own rules on their
premises. It will be best if good sense prevails and the
clubs change their rules and allow Indian dress of the
required levels of formality. A Constituent Assembly
debate on the right of equality way back in 1948 is
instructive. A member had wanted to include nondiscrimination on the basis of dress along with religion,
race, caste and sex. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel retorted
that such an inclusion would make the world conclude
that we do not even know how to treat our nationals.
Pointing out that he wore a dhoti to the Viceroys house
as well as to a peasants home, Patel told the persistent
member that the proposed insertion was unnecessary
as all the foreigners are going. The idea of discrimination on the basis of dress was born out of the idea of
slavery, he said, adding perhaps too optimistically,
Not even a shadow of it is left now.
CM
YK
Crime unabated
Reports of the sexual assault on a
six-year-old schoolgirl in a school in
Bangalore (July 20) and the
resultant
anger
show
that
legislation has to be strengthened
across India to bring quick relief to
the families of victims and stringent
punishment to the perpetrators.
A child growing up in todays
world has to face numerous
challenges every single day, not to
speak of the academic pressures. It
appears as though none can be
River linking
The budget lays great stress on industrial
corridors. If Gujarats model is anything to go
by, this will mean massive amounts of forcible or induced land acquisition and pollution. This is a recipe for conicts and social
disruption. Early July has seen massive
farmer protests in Raigad district of Maharashtra, against the proposed acquisition of
67,500 acres for a part of the Mumbai-Delhi
Industrial Corridor.
The budget also initiates the River Linking
project (Rs.100 crore for Detailed Project Reports), which has been under discussion for
many years. Mr. Jaitleys speech lamented
that India was not uniformly blessed with
perennial rivers. Both the UPA and the NDA
are ignoring expert opinion that warns of the
enormous ecological disruption and social
displacement that such a massive engineering project would cause; equally important,
they are turning a blind eye to the hundreds
of initiatives that have shown how water security can be achieved through decentralised
solutions even in the driest of regions.
I have said earlier that Mr. Jaitleys omission of crucial ecological terms was astonishing. Perhaps it is not. The fact that almost
uniformly, corporate India welcomed the
budget is an indication that the NDA is as
gung-ho about a neo-liberal agenda as the
UPA was if not even more. In such an
agenda, the focus is on growth through making it easier for industry and commerce, with
the assumption that a larger economic pie
will help the poor rise above the poverty line.
The fact that despite a blistering pace of
growth through much of the 1990s and
2000s, the employment situation worsened
(latest gures show nearly 15 per cent unemployment), and 70 per cent of Indians remained deprived of one or more basic needs,
appears lost on the proponents of such an
agenda. And the fact that such growth actually trashes the ecological pie on which all of us
depend for our very lives, appears to be of
little consequence. Not even the World
Banks 2013 study showing that environmental damage annually knocks off 5.7 per cent of
GDP growth, seems to have made a dent in
such thinking.
The NDAs rst budget has thrown a few
sops in the direction of the environment and
the millions dependent on it. But much like
its predecessors, in painting the big picture it
remains embarrassingly devoid of innovative
ideas on how to move India towards ecological sustainability and justice.
(Ashish Kothari is with Kalpavriksh,
Pune.)
Sanskrit Week
A good judgment
Saif Mahmood needs to be
applauded
for
his
sincere
presentation of such a sensitive
matter, which has been highly
misinterpreted
by
people
(Misunderstanding
a
good
judgment, July 19). I hope this
article can also start a rational
introspection of other Alternative
Dispute Resolution settlements in
our country, such as the khap
panchayats and tribal courts. These
are results of long-standing
traditions but often seem lacking in
expertise, sensitivity and a
progressive outlook.
Akash Srivastava,
New Delhi
ND-ND