NEW DELHI: Eminent Indian scientist PM Bhargava on Thursday joined the top writers and filmmakers returning their awards, saying he will give back his Padma Bhushan to protest against “the government’s attack on rationalism, reasoning and science”.
“We don’t want our democracy to be replaced with religious dictatorship,” Bhargava said, adding that the government and RSS were trying to dictate what people eat and do.
The 87-year-old said he would give back the award to the home secretary, and urged young scientists to come forward and protest.
“The Padma Bhushan had a special place in my collection of more than 100 awards for science. Now I feel no sentimental attachment to it when the government tries to institutionalise religion and curtail freedom and scientific spirit,” Bhargava told Times of India.
Bhargava, the founder-director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for the Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1986.
The veteran scientist accused the Narendra Modi government of giving room for fringe communal groups to divide the country based on religion.
“The fear as we see in democracy today… the spread of Hindutva… I believe that (religion) really is a personal matter. It should stay as a personal matter. It should not make incursions into politics as it is doing now,” concluded Bhargava.