“This constraints my freedom, that is something I do not like, so the most I can do in protest is return my award” Bhargava said to reporters. We reject the narrow view of India that seeks to dictate what people will wear, think, eat and who they will love.
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“This award was very dear to me, I’ve received over 100 awards but this is the only one I received from the government, but I’m giving it away without any hesitation because at this moment the climate is such that we have many concerns”, he told BBC Hindi.
Bhargava said that he would return his Padma Bhushan, alleging that the Modi government was trying to make India into a “Hindu religious autocracy”.
Stating that statements made by Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagawat that women should restrict themselves to doing household chores were detestable, the 87-year-old scientist said he had chose to return the award since he was anxious about the future of India. “I am upset that the scientific and rational temper has not been maintained in the country”. Bhargava has become the first scientist to return the award.
“BJP is a political front of RSS…”
The scientist also sent a separate petition to the Centre, state governments and people at large, urging them to “stop the spread of communal hatred and polarisation in society,”. and pointing out that India had been a pluralist country where communities allowed space for each other. “Many of the incidents which had happened in the recent past were assaults on free speech and freedom of expression”.
“The present government tells us all that which I found unacceptable…The extent of irrationality that we see in these decisions”, he said.
“Leading Indian authors, poets and film makers totaling 212 have returned awards to various academies with the latest being authors and poets from the National Academy of Letters, in a collective revolt against what Salman Rushdie earlier this month called the “thuggish violence” creeping into Indian life under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
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On Thursday, meanwhile, historians joined filmmakers, writers and scientists in growing protests against the “climate of intolerance”.
