No, I will not return my award. Never, and there are basically two reasons for not doing so.

First and foremost, I have not received any award from my government, so, sadly, there is no point of returning it. Well, I could have if there was any award for being the laziest person around. Or, if government start giving awards for writing a blog that no one reads.

Anyway, I can always imagine to receive a prestigious award from my government. So, let’s imagine that I have a ‘Sahitya Academy‘ award. Wow. How proud I am feeling right now? Even my imagination rocks!! 

So, the second reason for me to not return my imaginary ‘Sahitya Academy’ award will be – why will I return an appreciation of my work, when on a practical sense it won’t serve any purpose? 

Those who are doing so, I mean returning awards, are doing in the name of intolerance.

I have to literally reread the meaning of this term to understand if it’s meaning has changed somehow, without me knowing about it.

Intolerance – “unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own.”

No, it’s still the same.

Basically, if you read the meaning of intolerance again, you will realize it is actually those intellectuals (who are returning awards), who are showing intolerance. They are unable to accept views and beliefs of others; they do not want to respect that some of the Hindus may have their own beliefs (religious and sentimental), and they also have a say in this democracy.

Oops, I said the word Hindu.

This whole intolerance started with one incident in dadri,U.P, where an agitated mob killed a man over the rumors of eating beef. Killing a person, be it for whatever reason, can not be justified. It is the role of judiciary system to punish someone for their crime. I personally think that every rapist should be hanged or beheaded publicly, on the spot. But, to think rationally, I could never-ever support this thought in action. It is a heinous crime to kill someone, be whatever reason.

Coming back to our intolerance intellectuals who got so baffled by this incident that they thought of returning awards, Sir/Madam I have few questions for you.

1. You acted on this one incident as if it has somehow projected the view of whole nation. When you say nation is going towards old age and barbarism, are you referring to whole India or just a small village of Dadri?

2. If you are just talking about Dadri, you must know that who is ruling this particular state, and by the political definitions those father and son duo are labeled as most secular people in political arena. Why didn’t you target them in your intellectual speeches and write ups?

3. If you were talking about whole nation, have you taken any survey asking whole nation on where do they stand on intolerance? If not, you may want to consult our very own survey specialist Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. Before that do not speak on behalf of whole nation.

4. If you are just talking about your viewpoints, you are perfectly right in expressing your freedom of speech. Someone said that it’s a peaceful protest and they have a right to do so. Completely agree with that. It’s same like we the common people do a candle light protest when we know we can not do anything else. Is this what you think, that you can not do anything else. Is this the reason that you are protesting like this?

5. You are returning a award, actually a medal/certificate, just a mocking award, because you will always say in your future conversation, “Ohh, I have received this award in 1990… and then I returned it, you know, because my political views did not matched with the current government.” your name will always be associated with that, and you know that. So, you are not returning anything of value. It’s just a mockery.

6. You got this award from a different central government, and now when the government is changed, you do not like it anymore and you are returning this award. So, if your favorite government comes to power again in the next election, would you ask them to give back your award?

7. If you are returning this award because of non-political reasons, solely on your shaken beliefs; than you do understand that this award was given to you for your work by your nation. To receive anything from your nation is a great honor, and you are actually dishonoring your nation by returning it. You know that, right?

8. What is the clear purpose? Did you stated, what were you expecting and what didn’t happened? How exactly your government failed you? What your government should do to fix this? If you are having hard time phrasing your thoughts that only God knows who can do it better?

9. Have you ever thought how it will escalate the whole situation? So, instead of calming the behavior of your fellow citizens, you have just aggravated this situation. Now, everyone is talking about Hindu-Muslim, BJP-Congress, Bhakt-Terrorists, etc…

10. Have you ever thought that this action of yours has only helped you, and not your nation. Not even the community that you are supporting. It may have helped some secular political parties though. So the result is it looks like either a political or a personal gain. So which was it?

If intellectuals of our nation think that they can not do anything constructive to save their society from falling into old age; than it is a really shameful thing. Not only for the nation, but also for you intellectuals, who are just a wastage of brain.

There is a saying that if you want to destroy a nation, first destroy its culture. First thing that this sort of barbaric rulers did was that they burnt down all the books. This is how powerful books are, and to think that a writer or a movie maker who are creating a piece of history everyday with their work, is helpless; this is pathetic.

One tribe who can change the face of a nation is focusing solely to demean everything that India stands for. No, it’s not any Hindu organization, it is you, my dear Artistic tribe.

Coming to what you could have done which would have been more graceful and appropriate seeing your capabilities.

1. Instead of returning the award back to government, why didn’t you auction it or just put it in a museum where the royalties or the money earned can be used to benefit the victims of intolerance.

2. Why didn’t you used the money that you have received with your award in some constructive work? Why didn’t all of you just go to Dadri, and villages like that and help standing a good infrastructure there?

3. Why are you not building wells, repairing roads, opening schools, distributing study materials, giving scholarships? Why are you returning award instead of doing something which can actually help people?

4. Why didn’t you invest in creating a shelter home for cows in each village and city so that instead of roaming the roads for food, cows can stay there and be taken care of? No more killing, no more mob agitation.

5. Why didn’t you say something positive to help your nation? Why don’t you do something positive to heal your nation? Why are you just returning your awards, when you can do so many better things?