You might not have paid much attention to what kind of brinjal would have been used in your favourite 'baingan ka bhartha', but if you had been present in the the 3rd National Consultation on BT brinjal at Ahmedabad Management Association on Tuesday, having any delicacies made out of brinjal next time may spark this question about its variety.
While Gujarat's many farmers have claimed to have benefited from the bio-technology cotton, Ahmedabad was chosen as one of the cities for the national consultation on the issue of BT brinjal's entry into the country. More than 1000 people including farmers, women, activists and NGOs, scientists, students, and the minister of state for environment and forest Jairam Ramesh were present in the consultation and, everybody 'played' their roles interestingly.
The minister heard all the stake-holders present in the consultation by doing the job of an anchor for the discussion, people who were favouring and opposing BT brinjal's entry in the country. Farmers from Rajasthan and Gujarat who had reaped a good crop from BT cotton were whole-heartedly supporting it. Equally vocal were farmers protesting against BT Brinjal.
Scientists from various research institutes and independent researchers expressed their deep concerns over the reliability and the standards of the tests. Some scientist including genetic experts, agricultural expert, molecular biologist, pharmacologist, medical doctors, pediatricians, physicians gave their independent research studies and data. Scientists from Anand Agricultural University and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University showed some results favouring BT brinjal's growth and produce, but they could not give any data about the impact of BT Brinjal on humans or animals.
