As historians join stir, Arun Jaitley says it’s manufactured

In a major development that shows the intelligentsia is clearly “deserting” the Narendra Modi government, historians on Thursday joined writers, filmmakers and scientists in growing protests against the “climate of intolerance” over which top scientist P.M.

Bhargava said that he would return his Padma Bhushan, alleging that the Modi government was trying to make India into a “Hindu religious autocracy”.

The government, on its part, remained disdainful about the development, with Union ministers like Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and M. Venkaiah Naidu rubbishing protests by the intellectuals as an act of political motivation. BJP spokesman G.V.L. Narasimha Rao even described Mr Bhargava as a “habitual protester” and a party statement termed him as a member of the “hate Modi brigade” and Sonia Gandhi’s “cheerleader” who was rewarded by Congress governments.

Mr Bhargava, who founded the prestigious Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, said he will return the award conferred on him in 1986 as 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 towards the path of making the country a Hindu religious autocracy just like Pakistan away from the path of democracy, moving towards the path of making the country a Hindu religious autocracy just like Pakistan.

This is not acceptable... Something I find unacceptable,” the 87-year-old scientist told PTI in Hyderabad.

He alleged that appointments to various posts were being made with people with some connection to the RSS. Charging the Modi government with “not keeping its promises”, Mr Bhargava said: “Returning the award is the only thing I can do as a scientist.”

“The BJP is a political front of the RSS. The master is the RSS. There was a CSIR meeting (directors) wherein RSS people attended it. This never happened in the history of the CSIR. I will return the award next week,” he said.

On Thursday, meanwhile, historians joined filmmakers, writers and scientists in growing protests against the “climate of intolerance”. A group of 53 top historians, including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, K.N. Pannikar and Mridula Mukherjee, hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not making any “reassuring statement” following concerns over the “highly vitiated atmosphere” in the country. “Differences of opinion are being sought to be settled by using physical violence. Arguments are met not with counter-arguments but with bullets,” a statement by the historians said, referring to the Dadri lynching incident and the ink attack on Sudheendra Kulkarni at a book launch function in Mumbai.

“When writer after writer is returning their awards 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,” it said.

“It is the same climate of intolerance, and rejection of reason that has led to the lynching in Dadri of Mohammad Akhlaq Saifi and the assassinations of Prof. Kalburgi, Dr Narendra Dabholkar and Shri Govind Pansare,” said the scientists and academics, including Mr Bhargava and other Padma Bhushan recipients Ashoke Sen, P Balram, Madabusi Raghunathan and D. Balasubramanian, a Padma Shri awardee. They protested against the “active promotion” of irrational and sectarian thought by “important functionaries of government”.

Dismissive about this development, finance minister Arun Jaitley, stepping up his attack on those returning awards, called them “rabid anti-BJP elements” and stuck to his guns that the protest was a “manufactured rebellion”. He told reporters in Patna: “Those returning awards are playing politics by other means. Follow their tweets and their stances on various social and political issues. You will find a lot of rabid anti-BJP elements in them.”

The minister added: “I already called it a manufactured rebellion. I stand by my phrase. And I think the events as they are unfolding only indicate that kind of manufacturing is going on at a faster speed.”

Home minister Rajnath Singh also came down heavily on the writers and some prominent persons returning their Padma and Sahitya Akademi awards, terming it as a “political conspiracy” and wondered what these people were doing when there were communal riots under Congress rule. He questioned how anyone could say that intolerance has been increasing as no big communal clash or tension had taken place anywhere in the country after the Narendra Modi government came to power. Mr Singh asked how could someone blame the Centre if some incidents had taken place in a state, like the lynching of a Muslim man at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.

“Can’t people understand that law and order is a state subject We cannot interfere even if we want to without the state’s permission. Somewhere there is a deep conspiracy which cannot be ruled out,” he told a TV channel.

The BJP lashed out at Mr Bhargava over his decision to return the Padma Bhushan, and in a strongly-worded response said he expressed “no moral indignation or even a murmur of dissent” when Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency and was “rewarded” with a top assignment soon after it was lifted.

“He is a habitual protester and has strong prejudices against the BJP and the Central government. He was a signatory to the letter of solidarity with Greenpeace signed by 182 persons on April 24 this year. The list is a who’s who of Hate BJP and Hate Modi brigade and comprises most cheerleaders of Sonia Gandhi,” BJP spokesman G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said.