Ramesh Calls Bt Brinjal Protestor Mental Patient: Reports
Faced with protests over the Bt Brinjal in Bangalore, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh called a protestor a mental patient, said media reports.
As Ramesh commenced a national consultation on the contentious move to introduce Bt brinjal, hundreds of perturbed protestors shouted slogans and waved placard against him, said reports.
“I have been observing over the last month that opponents of Bt brinjal have been behaving in an undemocratic manner,” the Minister was quoted as saying.
Protestors included farmers, NGOs and members of various organizations which flayed the moved to introduce Bt brinjal, and they were carrying placards with slogans like, “we don’t need Bt brinjal”, said reports.
In the consultation, some agitated farmers argued that introduction of Bt brinjal was not safe, as research conducted in the field was still insufficient, reports said.
They said that seed owners would not end up being farmers, but multinationals, said reports.
Saturday’s meeting is the last in a series of nationwide public consultation meetings on Bt brinjal, in which groups, NGOs, technologists and others would air their views.
Ramesh has already stated that a final decision on commercial introduction of Bt brinjal would be taken by February 10.
(Based on internet reports)
