The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is soon going to get a rude shock. It thought it was too clever by putting out the password protected 1000-odd pages of biosafety data on GM brinjal (that is field tested in about dozen sites across India) that cannot be printed on its website.
An NGO mailed me today saying that they have cracked the password and would be putting the data in a server that can be easily accessed AND printed by the public.
And that brings to an end the GEAC’s failed attempts to fool everybody. Posting the data was done in an attempt to be seen as obeying the Supreme Court’s order. But at the same time it did it by making sure that environmentalists could not study the biosafety data. Studying the 1000-odd pages would take time even if it is available in a printed format. But imagine studying it on a computer screen. Since the data cannot be printed, analysing it by looking at the data on the monitor will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
What a waste of time and efforts. Did the GEAC really think that no one can crack a password once it is posted on the internet?
Here is a short brief for those who have not followed the saga of getting the GEAC to post the data on its website:
Aruna Rodrigues filed a PIL with the Supreme Court in 2005 to make the GEAC to post the biosafety data of all GM crops that are undergoing field trials. But the regulator (oops!!) did all it could do to make sure it did not have to do that. At one stage it even mislead the Supreme Court by stating that the data was indeed posted on its website, when it was only the summary that was available.
It had right from the begining said that the data was confidential. To be specific, it said it was Confidential Business Information (BIS). Of course, every information that Monsanto ever provides to the regulator comes under this category. So nothing unusual about it. Only that the GEAC found this excuse to delay posting the data.
And can you believe it that the same GEAC in its 85th meeting on May 28 this year said that there was NOTHING confidential about the data.
The minutes note:
7.6 Posting of Biosafety data on GEAC website.
1.0 The Committee noted that M/s Mahyco has recently submitted the entire biosafety data in electronic form to the GEAC wherein the applicant has classified the information into Confidential Business Information (CBI) and non CBI information. The Committee was of the view that none of the information classified under the CBI merits consideration under this category. The Committee requested the Member Secretary, GEAC to post the entire data on the GEAC website.
This change in mind and attitude was due to the Court ordering it to make the data available soon.
But it was last month when it finally posted the data on its website.
Already reports are coming in that the data contains no biosafety tests results. It may be too early to come to a conclusion. One has to be patient and wait for more people to study the data.
But knowing the way Monsanto conducts its business, one can be pretty sure that the coming days are going to be really interesting.
Tags: biosafety data, GEAC, GM brinjal, Mahyco, Monsanto, Supreme Court, The Hindu
