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| Dr Bhargava returns Padma Bhushan as Indain scientists join protest against rising ,intolerance |
India's leading biologist and founder-director of Center for Cellular Molecular Biology, Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava has returned his Padma Bhushan award to protest against "the government's attack on rationalism, reasoning and science".
The government has been trying to institutionalise religion and curtail freedom and scientific spirit, Dr Bhargava told The Times of India,
Dr Bhargava, a politically aware scientist, has spoken out earlier on sensitive issues from genetically modified crops to Telangana movement.
He is also one of the 237 scientists of the country, who have signed an online statement, to protest the systematic spread of intolerance and communal hatred in the country.
In the petition addressed to President Pranab Mukherjee the scientists assert Indian people will not accept attacks on reason, science and their plural culture.
"We reject the narrow view of India that seeks to dictate what people will wear, think, eat and who they will love," the statement adds.