“Not a single person from the two villages has committed suicide,” said a full page news story in the Times of India in 2008 on how Monsanto's Bt Cotton had miraculously transformed the lives of farmers in Maharashtra. Three years later, the same story was reprinted by the agri-tech company as a full-page advertisement in the same newspaper. The Hindu's Rural Affairs Editor, P. Sainath, visited those villages recently to see first hand what kind of transformation had taken place. It turns out the villagers themselves have a different story to tell.
Keywords: Times of India Bt Cotton report, Bhambraja farmer suicides, Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech, agri-biotech industry, Maregaon farmers, Bt Cotton farming, paid news
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It is quite disturbing to read use of media by companies to influence policy making despite what happened in 2G.
However one question, is the use of BT cotton bad because of poor production, or because government is not allowing market determined pricing by banning exports when cotton prices are strong globally, and export markets being quite weak at present.
My hats off to Shri.Sainath for his, as usual, incisive, irrefutable arguments. May your tribe flourish!
That this episode of diabolic scheming by Monsanto-and a leading newspaper colluding with him is nauseating indeed
Equally disturbing is that this exposure has come out only now when the rivalry between these two newspaper giants is carried on the streets ;starting from advertisement war and carrying reports on mutually extremely opposite themes day to day basis.
The Hindu must also be chided for not doing this article much earlier
This game of influencing the mind and behaviours of the people is all
going on with the support of flourishing market of the NEWS agencies in
India. The big players like in this case try to hide there deeds through
this way. It is shocking that leading news papers are shading their
onerous responsibility of informing the true picture of the society.
And they say news media do not require moderation. I am sure none will be held guilty of this unethical and fraudulent article. Keep up the good work 'The Hindu'.
It is really shocking that the people (and leaders) of Maharashtra do not appear to take this seriously. Has this become a 'Maha-magas-rashtra'?
Is there no accountability at all?
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