Bt. Brinjal: Symbol Of Corporate Hegemony
By Rajkumar
11 November, 2009
Countercurrents.org
It seems that the most haunting issue of the policy makers and rulers world over is ‘How to feed another 2.3 billion people by 2050?’ Royal Society of England points out that the world needs genetically modified crops both to increase food yields and minimize the environmental impact of farming. The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of Indian government has given its approval for the country’s first GM crop, the Bt. Brinjal. However, there has been massive rally and uproar by largest farmers’ organizations registering their protest against the introduction of the new crop, in India.
India’s Policy Making Circles
In the above context we need to weigh the genuineness of the concerns of GEAC. Or to investigate ‘whom does the GEAC represent?’ As a technical research body Royal Society of England gave out seemingly an objective statement, (yet needs to be analyzed critically, given the global neo-liberal context). However, we limit our scope just analyzing the position of Indian policy circles. Dose our scientists, researchers, policy makers and rulers have genuine concern of feeding the growing population? Often, in order to sell their concepts, these sections point out mainly population explosion. Let us assume that these sections have a genuine concern and commitment of feeding the growing population. That sort of assumption then raises a logical question. Forget about the projected add-on population…what sort of concerns and commitments these groups have shown and practiced so far for feeding the existing starving populations of this country? The proverbial common man can answer this with a big ‘NO’.
However, these sections did not remain silent or lethargic. They have advocated and promoted various measures and efforts to feed the ‘increasing population’. Those measures are mainly either technology based or infrastructure expansion oriented. They are very clever in making a choice of such intervention. The solutions they offered never addressed the basic issue of expanding the right to access to natural resources for the vulnerable sections. Nor it had any regulatory measures to control the over-exploitation/indiscriminate extraction of natural resources by the corporate. On the other hand the solutions offered by them to fight hunger such as Information Communication Technology, World Bank loaned watershed projects (Sujala in Karnataka), irrigations modernization (IAMWARM in Tamil Nadu), are by design default going to benefit the MNCs such as Monsanto and IT giants more than the actual farmers – leave alone starving communities! One can not simply say that the state machinery is insensitive to hunger! It is highly sensitive and responsive …however, its brain is being operated by the corporate lobby! Hence the policies and programmes that have been rolled out usher in more technologies, complex researches, high-end technocrats, potential post-intervention corporatization of farm sector through the ‘manufacture’ of White Revolution, Blue Revolution, Green Revolution now ever-green revolution on the pipe line. The overall impact of these policies is the ever increasing hunger in the country. Let us have a look at the highlights of the recent Global Hunger Index 2009.
Shining India-cum-Shame India
As per the report of the International Food Policy Research Institute on Global Hunger Index (GHI), India ranks as the world's 24th most malnourished country. This has happened while our CEOs of India.Inc earn crores of rupees as their salaries and joining the global billionaires clubs so swiftly.
The index ranks countries on a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best score (no hunger) and 100 being the worst. This report has given India a rank of 65th out of 84 countries. In some aspects India is lagging behind the tiny country of Sri Lanka. Countries who have been ranked as better performers with less percentage of hunger are Nigeria, Kenya, Cambodia, Rwanda, Pakistan etc.
(for more detail check this site: http://www.ifpri.org/publication/2009-global-hunger-index )
P Sainath, author of the book ‘Everybody loves a good drough’t calls for examining the issue of hunger-related deaths against a larger canvas of the string of anti-poor steps taken by the government post 1990 – after LPG process. He argues that the PDS system is targeted in the interest of corporate agri-business. It is pointed out by him that the wheat export was highly subsidized. Consequently the price of the exported wheat is cheaper than the price of the wheat available in the PDS shop. When will our policy circles rectify these anti-people approaches? Unless this unjust systems and structures are cleared can our government fight hunger in the country? Or do our policy makers believe that the GM technology has also the magic power of fighting out these injustices?
It is a real shame that hunger related deaths and poverty related suicides are mounting in this country. Particularly in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra where World Bank policies have been implemented in a proactive (!) manner, the number of suicides has been in the increase.
Power to the People
Bt. Brinjal empowers the corporate and benefits the vested interest broker lobbies. What we need in India is the real democratic power for the rural communities. Let our policy makers devote their energies and efficiencies to implement land reform measures. Let the communities have the real right to access the natural resources for their livelihood. Few days ago I was chatting with my niece and her husband who are teaching micro-biology and biotechnology in a reputed college in Karnataka. When I put forth my above arguments they refuted that I was neglecting the importance of gene-tech in growing more. I just questioned them whether that technology could retain the farm sovereignty of the peasants and protect social justice so that they become live partners of the local market and custodians of sustainable natural resource base. I received a good mellowing smile from them!
Rajkumar is Working as a Programme Officer in Svaraj a national level voluntary organization based in Bangalore .
