Fwd: URGENT_Requesting Endorsement_ Letter to Editor_ Business Standard_Advertorial from CCFI (Cropcare Federation of India)
Rohit Parakh
From: Jatan Trust <jatan...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2020, 12:14
Subject: URGENT_Requesting Endorsement_ Letter to Editor_ Business Standard_Advertorial from CCFI
To:
Greetings. Hope you are keeping well at this time of health crisis. We are writing to you on behalf of ASHA, with some urgency regarding the malicious attack made by the Pesticide industry association against several activists and scientists from eminent institutions who have exposed the harmful effects of pesticides. This was done through a full-page "Advertorial" in the Business Standard on July 29th, which is attached. Not only does it personally name and attack public interest activists like Kavitha Kuruganti, Sunita Narain and Umendra Dutt but it also attacks and maligns several scientists from institutions like NIN, IITKanpur, JNU, PHFI and many state universities. It also carries pictures of Kavitha Kuruganti and Dr.Rashmi Sanghi of IIT Kanpur, making the personal venom even more striking.
We are requesting you to sign on to the attached letter that we drafted. This is addressed to the Editor of Business Standard, opposes the publication of such an advertorial, rebuts key premises of its content, and demands action from the newspaper. This is also intended as a public statement which would be sent out to the media and put up on the internet, so that it counters the propaganda of the pesticide industry which is purchasing extensive media space with its deep pockets.
The larger context of this is the proposed ban on 27 pesticides by the Union government and the upcoming Pesticide Management Bill. On both these issues, ASHA has engaged very actively and many of you have already acted and raised voice. The pesticide industry is desperate to attack and malign people like Kavitha who is one of the persons at the forefront of this campaign, and sidetrack the core issue of the harmful effects of pesticides.
We view this as an attack on all of us working for ecological agriculture, pollution-free environment and responsible practice of science and research. We hope that you will endorse this letter and circulate it to others to obtain endorsements. All endorsements should be sent to asha.kis...@gmail.com with your Name, Location and Affiliation (if any), by August 2nd (Sunday).
Jatan: A Mission for Organic Farming,
Vinoba Ashram, Gotri, Vadodara: 390 021
Gujrat, India
Phone: +91(0)265-2371429
Fax: +91(0)265-2371880
Email: jatan...@gmail.com
Rohit Parakh
From: Biraj Patnaik <biraj....@nfi.org.in>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2020 at 11:24
Subject: Statement against the Business Standard advertorial slandering civil society organisations...
To: adity...@gmail.com <adity...@gmail.com>
Cc: lega...@gmail.com <lega...@gmail.com>
With advance apologies for this mass mail/ Please do not press the reply all button! Endorsements to be made to the Google sheet attached.
Dear friends,
You must have come across a slanderous full page advertorial (attached) carried by Business Standard on July 29th, promoting the use of pesticides and making targeted and personal attacks against several reputed environmentalists.
The advertorial repeats the old trope that 'foreign funded NGOs' are working against the interests of Indian agriculture and farmers. The language and content of this advertorial is extremely derogatory towards senior activists and well-known environment champions like Sunita Narain and Kavitha Kuruganti, adding to the dangerous trend of increasingly shrinking spaces for civil society, and harassment of NGOs and activists.
The advertorial was paid for and commissioned by an association of agrochemical companies through the Crop Care Foundation of India and was published in Business Standard – a mainstream national business newspaper.
It is imperative that we condemn this malicious attack on these individuals and associated organisations and demand for unconditional apology and initiate legal action against the advertiser and the newspaper.
Some of us have initiated a public statement in response to this advertorial and I am writing to request your endorsements for the same. You may endorse the statement by signing up on this link: https://forms.gle/CpUza2SBdw9N6jqK9 before 12 noon - Monday, 3rd August.
I am sharing with this email the editorial and full text of the response statement/letter that is being proposed. Recipient email and
postal address is as below:
- Business Standard: let...@business-standard.com , tn.n...@bsmail.in , shailes...@bsmail.in , shyamal....@bsmail.in
- Business Standard Private Limited, Nehru House, 4, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi - 110002
- Press Council of India: chairma...@nic.in , pci...@gmail.com
- The Chairman, Press Council of India, Soochna Bhavan, 8-C.G.O. Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003
- Advertising Standards Council of India: con...@ascionline.org
- The Advertising Standards Council of India, B/717, Aurus Chambers, S. S. Amrutwar Marg, Worli, Mumbai – 400 018
Regards,
(On behalf of)
Meenu Vadera (Azad Foundation)
Gagan Sethi (Jan Vikas)
Noshir Dadrawala (CAP)
Amitabh Behar (Oxfam)
Biraj Patnaik (NFI)
Biraj Patnaik
Executive Director
NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR INDIA
India Habitat Centre , Core 4A, Upper Ground, Lodi Road
New Delhi - 110003, India | ' (+91 (11) 2464-1864/1865
www.nfi.org.in |Ë +91-9868828474 |
birajp |
@birajpat