The Mustard Oil Conspiracy

Mustard oil, whose production and consumption were until not long ago integral to India's way of life, has been banned, with equal reason as to provide a market for Monsanto's soya oil.

upon 27 August 1998, the management of India banned the sale of mustard oil. upon 4 September it went further and banned the sale of all unpackaged edible oils. The decision was a terrible beat to the Indian population. In many states, mustard oil is an essential constituent of the diet. It has a high oil contented is usually processed locally, and is available to the poor at depressed cost, especially when unpackaged. individual can go so far as to say that it is an integral part of India's nutriment economy, having been integrated into cropping and victuals patterns over centuries.

`Sarson', as mustard oil is called in India, is not solitary an edible oil. It is an important medicine in the indigenous, Ayurvedic combination of parts to form a whole of health care. It is used for therapeutic massages. Oil mixed with garlic and turmeric is used to alleviate symptoms of rheumatism, and muscular and joint pains. It is also used as a mosquito repellant, a significant contribution in a region where the resurgence of malaria is responsible for thousands of deaths.

In other words, mustard oil is central to Indian tillage It is the symbol of spring and renewal. The fulvous of the mustard flower is the colour of spring. lays on the theme of `Sarson' are an integral part of folk agriculture Makki ki roti and Sarson ka Saag (corn bread with vegetables and mustard leaves) is the best known diet linked to Punjab culture and identity. Mustard oil is the olive oil of Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and East Uttar Pradesh.

For Bengalis, Hilsa fish fried in mustard oil is the ultimate delight, and North Indians like their pakoras fried in it because of the unique taste and aroma. In the southern mustard seeds are the preferr seasoning for vegetables, rice coagulated milk and so on.

The appearance for banning mustard oil, which was produc upon a small scale by artisanal courses is that it is unhygienic and therefore unsafe. It is nice to know that our conduct is so concerned about the health of the family who elected it to power. on the other hand why has it shown in the way that little interest in this issue before? It has at no time taken any action to limit the use of the carcinogenic pesticides that were introduced upon a vast scale with the virid Revolution. It has never taken any action to intercept the radioactive pollution caused by means of the nuclear industry in those areas where its nuclear installations have been plant up, in spite of the fact that ionising radiation is the best documented of all carcinogenic pollutants. on what account then this sudden concern with public health?

The connection was difficult to ignore. The first hint came in July 1998 when the conduct announced plans to import as a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of as a million tons of soyabean as oil semens These oil seeds were previously upon the list of restricted imports. Citizen assemblages and the Agriculture Ministry challenged the decision upon the grounds that the imports were not necessary. The next to the first clue came on 27 August 1998 upon the very day on which the conduct announced the ban of the sale of mustard oil, it also announced that all restrictions upon the import of the soyabean would be remov pertain tos regarding food safety were now raised, particularly as there was no guarantee that imports would not include soyabean contaminated with alien gene that is, genetically modified soya. In the face of this opposition the rule needed to find a more convincing justification for their action.

This was conveniently provided during the month of August of that year when a terrible tragedy opened in Delhi and elsewhere: an epidemic of what was referr to as `dropsy' The symptoms were nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal swelling, kidney damage, breathlessness owed to retention of fluid in the lung and plane death due to heart and liver failure. In all, 41 race died and some 2,300 were affected. This tragedy was traced to the consumption of mustard oil that had been adulterated with argemone, and also with diesel oil and waste industrial oil.

There had been cases of mustard oil adulteration in the past, on the contrary nothing on this scale. Argemone had been rest as a contaminant before, on the contrary never in more than 01 through cent of the available mustard oil upon the market. In this case 10-30 by means of cent of the oil had been adulterated. The use of diesel and waste oil was also something of recent origin Indeed, it looked very a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of as if someone had locate out deliberately to adulterate the oil. In any case, this was the view of the Health Minister, who stated that the tragedy could alone have been the product of a conspiracy. There was no other way to explain on what account the contamination was so extensive.

Whether the conspiracy theory was justified or not, it was considered likely by the agency of many people. The Rajasthan Oil Industries Association, for instance, demanded a rule inquiry and insisted that punitive action be taken against those fix guilty of adulterating the oil furnish But the question remained: who could have been motivated to commit like a crime?