MEDIA ROOTS — If you were ever wondering exactly how large corporations ‘cover up’ malfeasance, look no further than the India Times.  Ag-giant Monsanto has colluded with one of the largest papers in Asia, the India Times, to heavily downplay the notion that Indian farmers have been committing suicide at abnormally high rates as a result of Monsanto’s clamp down on crop sharing.  This is a perfect example of powerful interests conspiring with a major media outlet in order to conceal the truth. 

Robbie Martin of Media Roots 

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COUNTER PUNCH — Three and a half years ago, at a time when the controversy over the use of genetically modified seeds was raging across India, a newspaper story painted a heartening picture of the technology’s success.

“There are no suicides here and people are prospering on agriculture. The switchover from the conventional cotton to Bollgard or Bt Cotton here has led to a social and economic transformation in the villages [of Bhambraja and Antargaon] in the past three-four years.” (Times of India, October 31, 2008).

So heartening was this account that nine months ago, the same story was run again in the same newspaper, word for word. (Times of India, August 28, 2011). Never mind that the villagers themselves had a different story to tell.

“There have been 14 suicides in our village,” a crowd of agitated farmers in Bhambraja told shocked members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture in March this year. “Most of them after Bt came here.” The Hindu was able to verify nine that had occurred between 2003 and 2009. Activist groups count five more since then. All after 2002, the year the Times of India story says farmers here switched to Bt. Prospering on agriculture? The villagers told the visibly shaken MPs: “Sir, lots of land is lying fallow. Many have lost faith in farming.” Some have shifted to soybean where “at least the losses are less.”

Read more about How the Times of India Colluded with Monsanto in Fake Reports of BT Cotton Successes 

© 2012 Counterpunch 

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