Joining the protest, another eminent Punjabi writer Dalip Kaur Tiwana also announced to return her Padma Shri honour as a mark of protest against the growing attacks on freedom of speech in the country.
Tiwana, a novelist and short-story writer, received the Padma Shri in 2004 for literature and Education. Also a winner of numerous awards at regional and national level, she retired as a professor of Punjabi from Punjabi University, Patiala.
“One cannot crush the voice of rebellion. What is happening in India is beyond tolerance. Returning these awards will at least make intellectual people think as to what is wrong on country,” she said.
Tiwana joins the growing chorus of authors protesting the incendiary atmosphere in the country due to increasing communal intolerance and attacks on free speech.
Eight Punjabi authors are among the 21 authors who have returned the Sahitya Akademi awards in the
past few days alone. Eminent writers Surjit Patar, Waryam Sandhu, Baldev Singh Sadaknama, Jaswinder, Darshan Buttar Gurbachan Bhullar, Ajmer Singh Aulakh and Atamjit Singh have so far returned their Akademi awards.