By J. P. Yadav
NEW DELHI - CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today backed politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai on genetically modified crops, saying his remarks were in line with the party’s views.
“What he has said is the understanding of the party. He (SRP) also explained why we are opposed to Bt cotton and Bt brinjal,” Karat told The Telegraph.
Pillai told a seminar in Kerala that “it is superstitious to completely oppose” genetically modified seeds, a shift from the party’s strong opposition to GM products marketed by multinational companies.
Sources in the CPM, however, felt that Pillai, considered close to Karat, had indeed nuanced the party line. “As Marxists, we cannot be opposed to science. But our opposition to GM seeds goes beyond science. It is about science being monopolised by imperialist forces. SRP seems to have overlooked this position,” a senior party leader said.
The CPM’s line on GM seeds finds mention in an October 2009 document of the central committee when the issue came up for discussion. “Genetically modified crops are to be used only after adequate trials and safeguards are put in place. Such technology is now sought to be monopolised by multinationals and their domestic collaborators. The use of biotechnology must be done through public research institutions and they cannot be the preserve of the private sector,” the central committee document said.
This line was more clearly presented in a 2002 statement by the CPM politburo when commercialisation of Bt cotton was approved. “The developed countries led by the US are promoting life form patenting in order to wrest control over the remaining biological resources of the globe. Control over GM technologies by multinational corporations is part of this effort to wrest control over agricultural production all over the world,” the statement said.
The CPM’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Basudeb Acharia, who heads the standing committee on agriculture, had gone out of the way to screen a film for his committee members in a bid to get them to oppose GM foods.
Poison on the Platter, a Mahesh Bhatt documentary based on the perceived ill-effects of GM foods, was screened in Parliament annexe on November 10, last year.
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