Three senior scientists working on agriculture biotechnology in Delhi have responded to the urging of a biotech lobbyist to protest against the recommendations of the Planning Commission Task Force on Biodiversity and GMOs, by writing to dissociate themselves from the report.

Dr Deepak Pental, Dr Sudhir Sopory and Dr SK Raina, members of the Task Force, chose not to engage with the consultations and discussions of the Task Force for its entire duration. They elected instead to dissociate themselves from the TF recommendations five months after the draft report was sent to them for comments, and after the biotech lobby had urged them to protest.

The consultations for the 11th Plan Process included the setting up of a Task Force on Biodiversity and Genetically Modified Organisms. Dr Suman Sahai chaired this. The Task Force undertook a process of wide consultations and submitted a report to the Planning Commission based on the inputs it received.

Five months after the report was submitted, a certain Prof C Kameswar Rao associated with a Bangalore based biotech lobby organization called the  'Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education' wrote to the members of the Task Force, (taking care to omit the Chairperson) , objecting to the content of the recommendations made by the Task Force and to the fact that it was put on the Gene Campaign website to enable wider comment and discussion. The biotech lobbyist appealed to all the Task Force members to protest against the TF report, none except Dr Deepak Pental, Dr Sudhir Sopory and Dr SK Raina, did.