Speaking to mediapersons in Patna, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “Those returning awards are playing politics by other means. They are rabid anti-BJP elements.” He was answering a question on the return of awards by several writers and now filmmakers and scientists. Stating that space of the Left having got reduced, he claimed that those returning awards were in a way electioneering against the BJP in Bihar polls.
Rejecting the charge that an atmosphere of intolerance was prevailing in the country, he said there was normalcy in the country and there was no atmosphere (of intolerance) for which the central government was responsible. He condemned all the incidents being dubbed as examples of intolerance and called for strict action against those responsible for it. He said there was a disproportionate political reaction to the incidents taking place in the country and asked those returning awards if their conscience had pricked when corruption and scams to the tune of lakhs and crores of rupees were taking place during the UPA rule.
Meanwhile on Thursday after writers, artists, filmmakers and scientists, over 50 historians came out strongly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not making any reassuring statement following concerns over “highly vitiated atmosphere” prevailing in the country. A total of 53 historians including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, KN Pannikar and Mridula Mukherjee raised concerns over recent developments in a joint statement released by Sahmat.
“Differences of opinion are being sought to be settled by using physical violence. Arguments are met not with counter arguments but with bullets,” the statement said referring to the Dadri lynching incident and the recent ink attack on Sudheendra Kulkarni during a book launch function in Mumbai. In a counter to Jaitley, the statement said, “When writer after writer is returning their award of recognition in protest, no comment is made about the conditions that caused the protest; instead the ministers call it a paper revolution and advise the writers to stop writing. This is as good as saying that intellectuals will be silenced if they protest.”
Sharing a similar viewpoint, top scientist PM Bhargava said he will return his Padma Bhushan award, alleging Modi government was trying to convert India into a “Hindu religious autocracy.” Bhargava, who founded the prestigious Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, said he will return the award conferred on him in 1986 because he felt the climate in the country was of “very strong fear” and it was “against rationality, against reason and against scientific temper.”
“I have decided to return the award. The reason is that the present Government is moving away from the path of democracy, moving towards the path of making the country a Hindu religious autocracy just like Pakistan,” he said.