Open letters to India's Prime Minister

1.Open letter to the Prime Minister on his statement regarding foreign funded NGOs
2.A message to India's PM from a Chennai housewife

COMMENT by Rachna Arora: The media has widely reported and followed up on the Prime Minister's statement on foreign-funded NGOs in the context of nuclear power and transgenics in India.

To point out that the resistance against GMOs is not just about NGOs or foreign support and that the concerns are valid, scientific and genuine and being raised in a democratic fashion by the citizens of this country, an open letter is being issued by some of us to the Prime Minister. The letter is pasted below.

You would find that prominent citizens like Admiral L Ramdas, Retd Naval Chief of Staff; Shri K R Venugopal, former Secretary to the Prime Minister, Swami Agnivesh, GoI; Shri Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao, former Minister of Agriculture, A.P., Shri Prashant Bhushan, SC lawyer; Prof. D. Narasimha Reddy, eminent agricultural economist, Vikram Singh, Maharaja of Sailana Shri Rabbi Shergill, Musician; several scientists from different streams of specialisation including agriculture/biological sciences, nutrition, social sciences etc., farmer leaders, human rights activists, organic farmers and concerned citizens are issuing this letter. 

The citizens of this country are now actively opposing GM food. I am attaching a letter [item 2] from a house wife in Chennai as an example of the kind of support this petition is receiving from various corners of the country.

You can contact. Ramasubramanian at 09444957781, Dr Uma Shankari at 9989798493, Dr Veena Shatrugna at 9391111291 or me at 09811746647 for further details.
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1.Open letter to the Prime Minister on his statement regarding foreign funded NGOs

YOU’VE GOT IT WRONG, MR PRIME MINISTER!
I AM A CITIZEN OF INDIA AND I OPPOSE GENETIC MODIFICATION IN OUR FOOD AND FARMING.

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,

I am a concerned citizen of this country. I also happen to be a conscious consumer. Further, I also am someone who wishes a sustainable future for all our small holder-farmers in the country. I was shocked to hear your statements blaming “NGOs, often funded from the United States and the Scandinavian countries, which are not fully appreciative of the development challenges that our country faces”, when asked in an interview about why your government put a moratorium on the release of Bt Brinjal.

I would like to say that you have got it wrong, Mr. Prime Minister. India put a moratorium on the release of Bt Brinjal because this technology is controversial world over, there is no consensus on its need and safety, state governments have opposed the release of Bt Brinjal, farmers’ organizations also rejected it and also importantly, individual citizens like me exercised our constitutional right and participated in a democratic process to express our views on the subject and demand for safe food, farms & environment in our country.

Mr. Prime Minster, we are dismayed that you have discounted the democratic process that led to the Bt Brinjal moratorium, and insulted our genuine concerns by saying that they are simply driven by foreign agencies. More importantly, the moratorium decision note by the Ministry of Environment has specified all the reasons including scientific arguments as to why Bt Brinjal should not be allowed for commercial release and we request you to kindly refer to it again.

What is more worrying is that you have said, “in due course of time, we must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture” you seem to have made up your mind on the subject when so many citizens are demanding for GMO-free food & farms and there is so much scientific evidence that raises concerns about bio-safety, health risks and productivity claims. This approach is neither scientific nor democratic. We are afraid that the reference to NGOs and foreign funding is only an excuse what we see is a government saying that it will take its top-down decisions, however biased or unscientific and that any resistance or opposition would be knocked down on some pretext.

In fact, we are very concerned about the powerful foreign hand pushing GM crops in our country. Mr. Prime Minister:

1. Can you tell us why your government signed the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture to reshape India’s agricultural research and revamp its policies related to agriculture based on US-AID recommendations?

2. Can you tell us why you were fine with having Monsanto, Archer-Daniels Midland and Walmart on the Board of K.I.A. do you believe that they are the ones who are “fully appreciative of the development challenges that our country faces” and deserve to be involved in decision-making about Indian agriculture?

3. Can you tell us why you have never expressed concern about the multi-billion-dollar international bio-tech industry that has not only rapidly gained control of our seed industry but also has swamped the farmers with misleading advertising and has built powerful well-funded lobbying groups who have regular access to your Ministers?

4. Can you share independent data that GM crops are fully safe for our health & environment in short & long term and show how my right to informed choice would be protected?

5. Can you please tell us how a corporation like Monsanto which does not hesitate to sue farmers or even state governments to protect its markets is a welcome foreign entity?

I write to you to register once again my resistance against GMOs in my food and our country’s agriculture for a variety of reasons, and assert that I am very much committed toour national sovereignty! Kindly appreciate the fact that the resistance is based on citizens engaging with the debate, being informed about global negative experiences and scientific evidence on GMOs and my need to uphold my rights against wrong decisions by the state.

I urge you to respect democratic and informed dissent in the country, and not seek to thrust down top-down biased and unscientific decisions on the citizens of the country.  We are after all a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people!

Admiral L Ramdas, Former Chief of Naval Staff and Magsaysay Awardee
Adv Pouran, Chairman, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL-Kerala)
Adv Pradeepkumar, Chairman Haritha Sena Farmers Organisation, Kerala.
Arun, Chetra Organic, Secunderabad
Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh, Pune
Ashlesha Khadse on behalf of Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers’ Movements
Ashok Khandelwal, Labour Economist, Rajasthan
Balaji Shankar, Organic Farmer, Tamil Nadu
Dr A R Vasavi, Social Scientist, Bangalore
Dr D V Natarajan, Scientist-IGCAR-Kalpakkam (Retd), Tamil Nadu
Dr K K Krishnamurthi, President, Indian Society for Certification of Organic Products, Coimbatore
Dr Thomas Varghese, Ex-Chairman, Kerala State Agriculture Prices Board
Dr V S Vijayan, Chairman, Salim Ali Foundation
Dr. Uma Shankari, Farmer and Secretary, Rashtriya Rythu Seva Samiti, Chittoor district, AP
Dr. V Rukmini Rao, Women’s rights activist, Hyderabad
Dr. Veena Shatrughna, Scientist and Deputy Director (Retd), National Institute of Nutrition
Geo Jose, National Alliance for People's Movement-Kerala
Govindasamy Thirunavukkarasu, Farmer Activist
J. Srikar, Retd. DGM, NABARD, Coordinator Honeybee AP, National Innovation Foundation
Joseph Thomas, Project Consultant, CSIE IIT-Madras, Chennai
K.R. Venugopal, Secretary to the Prime Minister (Retd), Govt of India, and Special Rapporteur, NHRC
Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary, PUCL Rajasthan, Jaipur
Lalita Ramdas, Former Board Chair Greenpeace India and Greenpeace International
Nityanand Jayaraman, Writer, Chennai
Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court Lawyer, Delhi
Prem Krishna Sharma, President, PUCL Rajasthan
Prof Birendra Nayak, Mathematics professor, Odisha
Prof. D Narasimha Reddy, Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad
Prof. N.Venugopal Rao, Prof. of Entomology, ANGRAU Agri. University, Hyderabad
Prof. Rama Melkote, Advisor to the Supreme Court Commissioner on Right to Food
Prof. Satya Prasad, Prof. of Botany, Osmania University, Hyderabad & President, Jana Vignana Vedika
Rabbi Shergill, Musician, Delhi
Rachna Arora  concerned citizen, Gurgaon
Ramasubramanian, Samanvaya, Chennai
S. Jeevan Kumar, President, Human Rights Forum, A.P.i
Shailja Katoch, Director, Kangra Group of Hotels
Surekha Deepak, Communication Expert, Bangalore
Swami Agnivesh, Social Worker, Delhi
T S Ananthu, Navadarshanam Trust, Bangalore
V. S. Krishna, Gen. Secy., Human Rights Forum, A.P.
Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao, former M.P. and Minister of Agriculture, A.P.
Vikram Singh, Maharaja of Sailana, Madhya Pradesh
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2. A message to India's PM

Mr. Prime Minister, Please do not underestimate the intelligence of common man in spite of the mistakes we make in electing such leaders!

1.    Subha Bharadwaj, Home maker chennai.
2.    Aditya Bharadwaj, student , chennai
3.    Akansh Bharadwaj, student Chennai
4.    T.S.Sridharan, Sr. citizen chennai
5.    Ruckmani Sridharan, home maker chennai
6.    Mr. Venkateswaran, Banker Chennai
7.    Mrs. Girija, home maker chennai
8.    Mr. Madhavan Retired Accounts officer, Chennai
9.    Mrs. Parimala, Home maker, Chennai
10.    Ramya Kamesh, home maker, Chennai
11.    Shruthy student chennai
12.    Shanthi, cleaner chennai
13.    Ameena, Home maker  Chennai
14.    Nitya Student Chennai
15.    Devi student chennai
16.    Divya, Youth Chennai
17.    B M K Swamy retired officer Hyderabad
18.    Shanta Swamy Home maker, hyderabad
19.    Vijaya Sarathy, software engineer, Chennai
20.    K Murari Service Chennai
21.    Gayathri Home maker chennai