Well-known scientist and founder-director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), P.M. Bhargava, has returned the Padma Bhushan award received by him in 1986 to President Pranab Mukherjee in protest against the direction in which “today’s Government run by the BJP is driving the country.”

Dr. Bhargava sent the award to the President on November 6. Explaining the reasons for his decision, he said in a letter to Mr. Mukherjee: “It is with much regret that I am, with this letter, returning the award of Padma Bhushan that I had the privilege of receiving in 1986 from the then President of India, Shri Giani Zail Singh. This award has been very dear to me. My returning it to you, for whom I have much respect and admiration, is an expression of my concern at the currently prevailing socio-politico situation in the country. I am deeply concerned that the BJP which is ruling at the Centre and several States, has deserted the road of democracy and is driving my beloved country on a path that would make the country a Hindu religious autocracy, somewhat like Pakistan with Islam replaced by Hinduism.

“No one would be more aware than you that, de facto , BJP is the political front of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and functions under the leadership of RSS that is fully committed to the ideology of Hindutva, which I find divisive, unreasonable and unscientific.”

Referring to Article 51 a(h) of the Constitution, he said one of the duties of citizens was to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.

“Steeped in superstition, unreason and irrationality, much of what the RSS and the BJP do goes against the grain of scientific temper. An example would be the recent statement of Shri Mohan Bhagwat, who heads the RSS, that marriage is a contract according to which the woman is supposed to be only a housewife and not work outside.”

Dr. Bhargava said: “The Dadri incident in which Mohamed Akhlaq was lynched to death in a pre-planned manner (probably by fringe elements that are related to the BJP) showed the control that BJP wants to have on what we may eat and what we may not, just as it wants to control what we may wear or whom we may love or what we may read. “Incidentally, our scriptures put no bar on our eating beef. Charaka Samhita says: ‘The flesh of the cow is beneficial for those suffering from the loss of flesh due to disorders caused by an excess of vayu, rhinitis, irregular fever, dry cough, fatigue and also in cases of excessive appetite resulting from hard manual work.’”

He also expressed his concern that the space for dissent, “which is the hallmark of a democracy, is decreasing and intolerance increasing. Minorities are made to feel that they are second class citizens of the country. There are organised attempts to impose Hindutva agenda across the country. Cultural intolerance is a dominant element in the functioning of the present government.”

“I find the present government the least knowledgeable and least concerned about science. The climate of religious conservatism that we have today is a major obstacle in the functioning of science and thus in meeting developmental objectives,” he added.