Renowned biologist and former vice-chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, Dr Pushpa Bhargava, has written a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill describing it as “unethical and unconstitutional and lacking in scientific sense”.
The bill, to have been placed in the Winter Session of Parliament, has stated that information declared by the BRAI as “confidential, commercial information” cannot come under the RTI Act.
Its definition of biotechnology excludes key areas such as immuno-technology, stem cells and nano-biotechnology which are all an integral part of modern biotechnology.
“Even more surprising, every university teaching these techniques will have to get BRAI permission for teaching them to undergraduate and postgraduate students,” Dr Bhargava pointed out.
No civil society participation has been proposed and the Biotechnolgoy Regulatory Appellate Tribunal will not accept complaints from the civil society even though they will be most affected by these products.
Worse, the bill was unconstitutional because although agriculture was a state subject, the bill will take away from the state government, the authority to take decisions on GM plant products.
Dr Bhargava highlighted how when Mr Jairam Ramesh was minister for environment and forests, 10 states had written to the Prime Minister that they will not allow their states to grow Bt brinjal.
The bill has made the convener of the selection committee for members of BRAI to be nominated from the Department of Biotechnology which is a vendor of genetic engineering. Nor did it make labeling of GM food products mandatory and offered no protection to farmers whose fields get contaminated with a GM product.