Nayantara Sahgal returns Sahitya Akademi Award
She is the neice of former Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
She made the move at a time when lynching of a Muslim man over a beef rumour in Dadri has sparked off a controversy.
"The Prime Minister is absolutely silent. He has uttered no word of condemnation at all at these incidents. The whole country wishes the Prime Minister to make a statement because the situation is getting more and more serious," Sahgal told NDTV.
She attacked PM Narendra Modi and said: "Under Modi we are going backwards, regressing, narrowing down to Hindutva...there is rising intolerance and lots of Indians are living in fear."
Sahgal had received the award in 1986.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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