Mahyco, Monsanto officials were put under surveillance

Back in 2018 the BJP government that was in power in Maharashtra had set up a special investigation team SIT to probe companies allegedly selling or releasing unapproved herbicidetolerant HT transgenic cotton or Bt cotton seeds in the stateThe resolution forming the SIT specifically mentioned seed giants like Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India Pvt Ltd Monsanto Holdings Pvt Ltd and Monsanto India Ltd The SIT was told to inquire into the roles of these companies in the unauthorised production storage and sale of HTBt cotton seeds with HT transgenic gene The SITrsquos report which was to be submitted within a month came three years later and was submitted to the state governmentrsquos agricultural department reported The Wire which said it had attempted to contact SIT Chief Krishna Prakash multiple times for a comment but he wasunavailableA few months before the SIT was formed in October 2017 the Prime Ministerrsquos Office PMO had also set up the Field Inspection and Scientific Evaluation Committee FISEC under the Department of Biotechnology to probe the proliferation of unlawful seedsProbe revealsIn 2018 as both probes continued the phone numbers of six senior officials from Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India Pvt Lt and Monsanto India were selected as possible candidates for surveillance investigations under the Pegasus Project have revealed A senior government official and scientist at the Department of Biotechnology who was involved with FISEC was also of interest to an unidentified Indian client of the NSO group The Wire reportedTheir numbers form a part of a leaked database of more than 50000 numbers worldwide that the French media nonprofit Forbidden Stories accessed and shared with an international media consortium of 17 organisations as part of the Pegasus Project As per prepublication statements given to the consortium the NSO Group has disputed the listrsquos authenticity saying it has nothing to do with the company The Wire and other Pegasus Project media partners have noted that only a technical examination of a phonersquos data could establish whether an attempt was made to hack The Mahyco and Monsanto employees who were of interest to an Indiafocused client include senior officials researchers and scientists working with the two companiesIn India research into genetically modified GM crops takes place in a vitiated atmosphere Bureaucratic control smothers scientific efforts while some prominent antiGM activists have been accused of spreading pseudoscienceSearches and raidsOver the past six years Maharashtra has seen a huge rise in the usage of Bt seeds with the HT transgenic gene which are easily available and accessible to farmers However the BJP government and the RSS have advocated against the use of these cotton seedsOver the years the companies have also faced searches and raids in the godowns of their storage unitsA senior Monsanto official who was engaging in talks with the government in 2018 was chosen as a potential Pegasus target in mid2018 Speaking on condition of anonymity the official told The Wire that their job was to speak to different stakeholders explaining the companyrsquos workldquoRegardless of which party was in power my work entailed participating in meetings and talking to different stakeholders of the government While doing this I would come across all kinds of peoplerdquo the person saidThe senior official who is no longer associated with Monsanto said that the news of surveillance has both ldquoamused and scaredrdquo themAll the researchers and officials currently employed in the company were contacted but they declined to speak on why they might have been seen as possible candidates for snoopingThe senior official and scientist who was involved with FISEC said ldquoI am surprised to know that even I could have been under surveillance I have no idea why The FISEC was mainly what I was working on at the time and the seeds business is complicated Both the government and the companies play a dirty gamerdquoThe report which was submitted to the PMO gave a clean chit to Mahyco A Mint report from the time says that the FISEC report concluded that ldquothere has been no deliberate releaserdquo of the HTBt seeds into the market by MahycoHowever the report is yet to be made public An official from the seeds industry and who was also involved in the FISEC said that the report not being public is cause for speculationldquoWe donrsquot know how they reached the conclusion that Mahyco is not providing the HTBt seeds They never explained itrdquo the official saidFarmers defy governmentDefying the government several farmersrsquo organisations have not only openly bought the seeds but also grown HTBt cotton a third generation GMO developed by BayerMonsantoThe FISEC estimate states that more than 15 per cent of the total cotton production in major cottongrowing states is of the HTBt variety which doesnrsquot have government approval According to experts more than 50 lakh packets of the HTBt variety of 450 gm each could be in circulationLalit Patil Bahale executive president of the farmersrsquo organisation Shetkari Sanghatana told The Wire that seeds have been made available through ldquosafe channelsrdquo into the market His organisation which has been at loggerheads with the government said many farmersrsquo organisations have decided to sow the HTBt variantAgitations held by the Shetkari Sanghatana have led to two FIRs being filed in the state against farmersrsquo groups sowing the HTBt seeds The organisation criticised the police action and called the government ldquoantifarmerrdquoBoth Mahyco and Monsanto now Bayer have said that they have not indulged in any illegal productionsalesrelease of HTBt seeds2017Year the PMO set up the FISEC