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Only Manmohan backs me on GM food: Jairam Ramesh

Sources said the new scientific tests recommended to the genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC) after public consultations will have a time frame.

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Prime minister Manmohan Singh stepped in to resolve the differences within the Cabinet on genetically modified (GM) food on Wednesday.

In a 50-minute meeting, he directed that scientific tests surrounding Bt Brinjal should be time-bound. Sources said the new scientific tests recommended to the genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC) after public consultations will have a time frame.

Hours before the meeting, environment and forest minister Jairam Ramesh lamented that he had “no friends” in the Cabinet, except the PM.

“There are times when I feel I am fighting a lonely battle. There is no question of going back on the [Bt Brinjal] moratorium. Except UPA president Sonia Gandhi, there is nobody in the alliance who can take a stand on the issues relating to environment and forests. I am not going to change my stand,” Ramesh said while speaking to women journalists in the capital. Ramesh said the PM called the meeting after agriculture minister Sharad Pawar wrote a six-page letter on the future of GM crops and agriculture.
“Right now, there is cauliflower, cotton, rice, tomato, groundnut, cabbage, potato, corn, sorghum, bhindi and brinjal but only rice has the food security argument. None of these are going to see the light of day for 3 years. I am not stopping anybody’s science. These 2-3 years will be used to set up the mechanisms and for the consensus,” Ramesh added.

While answering the crucial question on seed security to farmers, Ramesh said that over 80% of GM seeds in the world are controlled by one company. “India must decide if it wants one company or private companies… it is an ideological position. Agriculture research must be public-driven,” Ramesh said.

Admitting that there might have been differences between him and former special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, Ramesh said he had no hand in the latter’s resignation.

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