New Delhi: With less than seven days to go for Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's final call on the introduction of genetically modified brinjal, leading scientist Pushp Bhargava, who was also the Supreme Court nominee to the country's biotech regulator, warned that if Bt Brinjal is allowed it would be the "single largest disaster". ­"Scientists all over the world have opposed GM foods.

Renowned scientists like Rupert Sheldrake and many others have said that they don't support GM foods. They have written to India saying that it should not be allowed. If despite all this and the public hearing against Bt Brinjal, it is released it will be the single largest disaster in the country," Bhargava said. Bhargava is the founder director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) as well as a National Knowledge Commission member. He added: "If it is indeed allowed, we won't let it! It will end up as a third war for independence....We will seek legal action. We can file an appeal with the court, asking them to stop the commercial release of the crop, since Bt Brinjal will not be packaged and will look the same as normal brinjal. This is a processed food and the consumer must know what he buys or eats. So, since this highly processed GM food won't be labeled, it shouldn't be allowed." Last year two leading European scientists who spearheaded the movement against GM food in Europe had visited India and appealed to India to reject the Bt Brinjal. Bhargava stressed that when the entire European Union had denied Bt products, the only reason wellknown faces in the biotech industry like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw were vouching for its release was business interests.