Nominate Devinder Sharma to the Rajya Sabha

August 10, 2009

To
The Honble President of India
Rashtrapati Bhawan,
New Delhi

Nominate Dr Devinder Sharma to the Rajya Sabha

We, the people of India, urge the Honble President to nominate renowned food & trade policy analyst, journalist, writer and thinker Dr Devinder Sharma to the Rajya Sabha for his exemplary services to the society and commitment to the cause of poor, hungry, and marginalized people of the world. As the few nominated members of the Rajya Sabha have recently completed their tenure and these vacancies are yet to be filled up, we demand from the Government of India to nominate Devinder Sharma to the upper house of Indian Parliament.

Dr Devinder Sharma is an award-winning journalist, writer, and researcher globally recognised for his analysis on food, agriculture and trade policies. A trained agricultural scientist, he started his career as a journalist but quit active journalism to research on policy issues concerning hunger and food security. He writes and speaks extensively on agriculture, trade, biodiversity, genetic engineering, IPRs etc and has written more than 10,000 articles till date on these and several other issues.

He is also the author of "GATT and India - Politics of Agriculture" (1994), "GATT to WTO: Seeds of Despair" (1996), "In the Famine Trap" (1997) and "Trade Liberalisation in Agriculture: Lessons from the First Ten Years of WTO" (2005).

A very simple, honest and humble person, Devinder Sharma is considered by farmers as their trusted friend, guardian and guide for his unwavering commitment to the cause of millions of poor and marginal farmers and his long and sustained association with agriculture related issues.

Very recently, the prominent Indian magazine The Week in its Independence Day special issue (August 16, 2009 issue) compiled a list of 25 most valuable Indians and Devinder Sharma features prominently in that list. The magazine in its write-up on him quotes an American TV channel calling him Indias dissident and that he is to agriculture what Noam Chomsky is to political economics.

Definitely, such a prominent personality of India deserves to be nominated to the upper house of Parliament where he can effectively raise the issues on behalf of crores of farmers and hungry people. Today, when small farmers and their traditional farming practices are under severe threat from various quarters, Devinder Sharma is one of the prominent voices raising their concerns and plight before the world.

India, where more than 60 percent population is dependent on farming, needs many leaders like Devinder Sharma in its Parliament to defend the rights of poor farmers.

For inclusive development of the nation, it is essential that the issues concerning agriculture, trade and hunger are being seriously discussed in the Indian Parliament and none can add value and substance to the discussion and debate as Devinder Sharma can.

We, the people of India, hope that the Government of India will convey its sincerity and commitment to the upliftment of poor and marginalized farmers by nominating Devinder Sharma to the upper house of Parliament.

With sincere prayers and regards,
We the undersigned:
Kuldeep Ratnoo



Profile of Devinder Sharma

Born in 1955, Devinder Sharma is a post-graduate in agricultural sciences. He completed his Masters in Agriculture, specialising in Plant Breeding and Genetics, from the Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Palampur (HP). Significantly, the same University in 2004 conferred on him with its first-ever honorary degree Professor-at-Large for his distinguished contributions to agricultural sciences and the farming community.

Soon after completing his education, Devinder Sharma joined the Indian Express, then the largest multi-edition daily newspaper, as its Agriculture Correspondent. Not only amongst a rare breed of agricultural scientists to have taken up journalism as a career, but also he is credited with mainstreaming agricultural journalism with his powerful reporting and analysis. It is through his writings that attention has been drawn on the emerging second-generation environmental impacts of Green Revolution technologies, and its implications on human health and environment.

In recognition of his leadership demonstrated in agricultural communication, Devinder Sharma was invited as a Visiting Editor at the International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines in 1986-87. To study, learn and understand the latest advances being made in agriculture research, development and farm extension in the Asian countries, he visited agricultural research centres in South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia (then Kampuchea). This understanding and learning is weaved into his writings, analyses and now in his kind of activism.

He has been a Visiting Fellow to the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK) in 1993, and a Press Fellow to University of Cambridge (UK) in 1996, where he researched on how to make science, environment and development reporting more meaningful and attractive.

His columns and writings are now widely published in several newspapers in India and abroad. His thought-provoking essays are also routinely published in prestigious journals, including Third World Resurgence from Malaysia; New Scientist and The Ecologist from London; and several other language publications in Europe. His writings also form part of the educational curriculum in several universities abroad. A prolific and versatile writer, he has published more than 10,000 articles.

Devinder Sharma's opinion and comments on some of the major and contentious scientific issues and developments have been frequently published in New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, The Australian, The Strait Times, International Herald Tribune, and almost all the major English, Hindi and other language dailies in India.

The internet is splashed with his writings, comments and opinions. He has several web pages for his writings, and because of the wide reach of the internet, he has a massive fan following across the continents.
For his deep understanding, forthright views and sharp analysis, he is widely interviewed by the television channels and the print media. His opinion is regularly sought by national and international TV and radio channels and he is frequently invited for discussions on agriculture, science, international trade and current affairs.

He chairs the New Delhi-based "Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security". He is also one of the coordinators of a nation-wide "Coalition for GM Free India". He is on the advisory board/trustee of several national and international organisations/NGOs.

Devinder Sharma has delivered nearly 200 key-note addresses at International Conventions, Congresses, Summits, Conferences and seminars. In 2004, he was invited to the core group on Ethics in International Trade, chaired by the former Irish President, Mary Robinson, and is presently a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's (CGIAR) Central Advisory Board on Intellectual Property Rights, and has previously served on the NGO committee of the CGIAR.

He has been invited to deliver special lectures/public lectures at more than 50 universities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Australia, and in Southeast Asia. In India, he is frequently invited to speak at various universities across the country, and spends more than 200 days in a year travelling in the villages and towns to decipher and explain the contemporary developments for the masses.