More writers return their awards questioning Modi government's functioning

New Delhi / Thiruvananthapuram: Eminent writers and authors have continued to raise a question mark on the functioning of the Narendra Modi government even as Malayalam writer Sarah Joseph and Urdu novelist Rahman Abbas on Saturday announced that they would return the Sahitya Akademi award and Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy award, respectively.

The two writers joined a growing protest against “rising intolerance” in the backdrop of murder of noted rationalists and the Dadri-lynching incident. The announcement came on a day when Malayalam poet K. Satchidanandan decided to quit all posts in the Akademi in protest against the murder of Kannada writer M.M. Kalburgi in Dharwad.