Academies stand by their findings on GM crops

The controversy over Bt brinjal refuses to die down with the country's six science academies today standing by their findings on 'limited release' of the GM crop despite Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh virtually trashing their report.

"It is important not to throw the baby with the bathwater," M Vijayan, President of the Indian National Science Academy, said while admitting to not making attributions and references while preparing the report.

However, he said it was the belief of the academies that the approach and the main recommendations would remain unaffected by the detected glitch in the drafting process.

The report was an an attempt to formulate a set of conclusions and recommendations based on the spoken and written comments of the Fellows of the Academies, he said.

"In doing so, we did not make attributions and references for reasons mentioned in the report itself. In retrospect and on the basis of the feedback subsequently received, we now feel that this could have been done," Vijayan said.

"We, the signatories of the report, take responsibility for the slip. . . A slip has occurred, but that should not lead to inaction. We should learn the lessons and move forward," he said.

Ramesh had virtually dismissed the report saying that it did not give a larger scientific view and focused only on findings of a scientist.

"It does not appear to be the product of rigorous scientific evaluation. There is not a single citation or reference in the report. So there is no way to know how the authors reached their conclusions. The report doesn't even say who all were consulted in this exercise," Ramesh had said.

In the wake of a controversy on commercialisation of Bt brinjal, Ramesh and K Kasturirangan, Member, Planning Commission, had asked Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences and National Academy of Sciences (India) were asked to submit a report on GM crops.

As the report was circulated in the scientific community, an environment advocacy group levelled allegations of plagiarisation against the academies contending that atleast six paragraphs of the report were 'copied' from an article written by scientist P Anand Kumar in Biotech News magazine.

On his part, Kumar said he had forwarded the article penned by him for the magazine to the academies when his views were sought for the report on GM crops.

The Inter-Academy Report had recommended limited release of genetically modified brinjal for cultivation to be followed by surveillance to look for effects, if any, on the health of people.