Alone again

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has in the past — as well as quite recently — spoken of his support for Bt brinjal. He has,indeed,come out in favour of the speedy testing and introduction of genetically modified crops. And,on Sunday,Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan spoke out as well about the processes followed by Ramesh,saying that the sloganeering populism that marred the environment ministry’s “consultation” process affected a decision that should have been taken on the basis of scientific evidence alone. A lack of unanimity,he pointed out,could not for ever hold up a decision being taken on the basis of what was unambiguously the dominant view.

With these statements — and the more that will undoubtedly follow — Ramesh stands increasingly,visibly,isolated on this question. And thrown into ever sharper relief is how his decision was in the end neither political nor scientific: it was merely his own. It was a straightforward exercise in discretion — a discretion that he arrogated to himself — and,as such,was inevitably divorced from any logic that supporters or protestors could have argued. The “consultation” process stands revealed as hollow,a mere façade for whatever the environment minister wished to decide. Perhaps,if we are lucky,the coalescing of political and scientific opinion that the brinjal decision was a mistake will speed up its reversal,and aid the process of introduction of other genetically modified variants in the future.

But,at the very least,this increasing outcry should show up the subversion of genuine institutional methods at arriving at decisions.