Indian farmers and activists staged a big protest against global seed giants, GMOs, and the BRAI Bill.
1.You have quit Europe, now quit India, farmers tell Monsanto
2.Monsanto told to quit India
See also this TV news report on the protest, which includes this comment from Kavita Kuruganti of the Coalition for a GM Free India: "If seed is controlled by corporations like Monsanto, it's going to be expensive. It is going to limit the choices of farmers. It's going to contaminate... neighbouring farms and so on. Monsanto is known in other countries to sue and jail farmers for the "crime" of saving their own seeds. The message today is: GMOs, BRAI Bill and Monsanto and similar corporations should quit India. We are asking political parties, which side do they stand on?"
http://bit.ly/161Da07
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1. You have quit Europe, now quit India, farmers tell Monsanto
GARGI PARSAI
The Hindu, August 9 2013
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/you-have-quit-europe-now-quit-india-farmers-tell-monsanto/article5004855.ece
Close on the heels of transnational seed company Monsanto abandoning its programme for development of genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe last month, there are growing calls for the company to do the same in India.
Its decision to withdraw all applications to grow GMO crops in Europe came in the face of strong opposition to the technology that was hurting its commercial interests.
“Monsanto, Quit India” and “Centre, reject Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill” were the demands raised by thousands of farmers and activists from across 20 States at a demonstration here on the eve of “Quit India” movement.
If the Congress respected Mahatma Gandhi, it would ask Monsanto to quit India, D. Raja of the CPI told the gathering.
A delegation of farmers and activists of the Coalition for GM-Free India, who could not get to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, presented Minister of State in the PMO V. Narayanasamy a national flag made up of non-GM cotton for Dr. Singh to unfurl at the Red Fort on Independence Day.
“Cotton and the cloth made from indigenous cotton are a symbol of our freedom struggle,” said Kavita Kuruganti of Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture. “Today, 93 per cent of the country’s cotton seed is controlled by Monsanto. It is now in the hands of the Prime Minister to protect our seed sovereignty as well as our food, farms, and freedom.”
A report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Experts Committee on GMOs recently recommended that there should not be any field trials of GM crops until gaps in the regulatory system are addressed. The panel suggested early risk assessment and emphasised need for chronic and trans-generational toxicity testing of GM products on humans, livestock, environment, and biodiversity.
Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan, too, has expressed concern at field-testing of GM crops and has put on hold approvals given by the regulatory authority under her Ministry in view of a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court.
Cutting across party lines, Members of Parliament joined the sit-in to express their solidarity with the coalition of about 250 civil society and farmers groups. BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi and Dharmendar Pradhan (members of the Agriculture Standing Committee); DMK MPs, including T.K.S. Elangovan, T.M. Selvaganapathi, K.P. Ramalingam, A.K.S. Vijayan and S. Thangavelu; and MDMK’s A. Ganesamurthi expressed their support and assured farmers that they would take up the issue in Parliament.
Chairman of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia said the panel had recommended that the BRAI Bill that provided for single-window clearance to GM technology should not be tabled in Parliament. The panel had opposed field trials of GM crops until a strong, revamped, multidisciplinary regulatory system was in place. M.B. Rajesh of the CPI(M) said the party backed the protestors’ demands.
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2. Monsanto told to quit India
Jyotika Sood
Down To Earth, August 8 2013
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/quit-monsanto-protest-near-parliament
*Farmers from 20 states to present national flag made from non-Bt organic cotton to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for Independence Day
This protest at Jantar Mantar today was unique. It had India’s national flags which were made after carefully selecting organic cotton balls from farms of Gujarat. The flags were of significance as 93 per cent of cotton grown in country is genetically modified Bt cotton and most of organic cotton is contaminated.
For protesters this Indian flag is of importance as it does not have Monsanto’s cotton seed and a special flag has been made to be gifted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to unfurl on August 15.
The gift is from farmers of 20 states who gathered in New Delhi today for a day-long sit-in dharna to demand ridding the country of genetically modified organisms and withdrawal of lopsided provisions in Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, 2013, which allows easy access to GM crops in India.
The protesters presented flags to various members of Parliament who came to address the protest—BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, Congress’s Bhakta Charan Das, Hussain Dalwai, CPI’s Basudeb Acharia, and various other regional parties like DMK (Tamil Nadu), BJD (Odisha), and Telegu Desam Party.
"Eat India companies threaten India"
Pankaj Bhushan, co-convenor of Coalition for a GM-Free India, said, “It is a shame that cotton and khadi, the symbols of our fight for Independence, are today controlled by an American MNC because of our indifference and inaction. Ninety-three per cent of Indian cotton seed has the proprietary technology of Monsanto. On this Independence Day we will hoist non-Bt organic cotton national flags in all the 20 states from where people have joined this dharna; this is a symbolic beginning to regaining our seed sovereignty. We also request the Prime Minister to hoist this flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort this year.”
Saroj Mohanty of Paschim Odisha Krushak Samanvay Samiti said, “On the eve of the 71st anniversary of the Quit India Movement, we have come together from all over the country as GM technology and companies like Monsanto are threatening our seed sovereignty and livelihoods. “Back then, it was the East India Company and now we have "Eat India Companies"! We demand that these companies quit India and strongly urge the Government of India to withdraw the BRAI Bill which has been brought in to facilitate the entry of GM crops, and stop the promotion of flawed and dangerous technologies like GMOs,” Mohanty said.
BRAI Bill draws ire
The protest at Parliament Street comes at a time when the Union government has introduced the BRAI Bill, 2013, in Parliament in the last (Budget) session. This Bill has been facing strong opposition inside and outside Parliament as it would facilitate the fast track entry of GMOs into the country, affecting agriculture and environment. The Bill proposes to set up a centralised single window clearance system which is designed to lower the bar for GM crop approvals with no independent long-term safety assessments or need assessment of a particular GM product.
Besides this, it takes away the decision-making power of state governments on open field trials in their respective states. The Bill has also faced flak from Right To Information (RTI) activist groups as it proposes to override the RTI Act. The Bill is now under review of the Parliamentary Standing committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests.
Various farm activists like Kavitha Kurungati from Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), Rajesh Krishnan co-convenor of GM-free India, and Sridhar Radhakrishan from Thanal urged farmers to follow agro-ecological farming which is in harmony with nature.
Sustainable agriculture solutions
The assembly demanded government to stop promoting GMOs and invest urgently in sustainable agricultural solutions to ensure food and livelihood security. “Public sector agricultural R&D system should be made both responsive to the real needs of small farmers and responsible to the people.”
They urged the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests, reviewing the BRAI Bill, to recommend to the government that it withdraw the Bill.
They also demanded that all the political parties should pay heed to the democratic voices that are opposing GMOs in our food and farming and declare their commitment to ecological farming, and take a firm stand against GMOs in our food, farming and environment. It is time that all political parties told the nation whether they stand on the side of sustainable agricultural development based on farmer-controlled, safe, affordable, agro-ecological approaches, or not, they said.
Farmer leaders from various states and other social movements like the Right to food campaign, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan, National Federation of Indian Women, and Greenpeace India also addressed the gathering.