The RSS today waded into the escalating row over return of awards by intellectuals calling it a "politically motivated" action by "frustrated pseudo-secularists" who were using the Sangh as a 'punching bag' even as another group of academics and scholars joined the protests.
As the RSS hit back at a "handful" of people returning awards as part of spiralling protests against the Modi government over the "climate of intolerance", Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took a dim view of this trend and urged them to help the government with "constructive criticism".
Echoing Fadnavis' view, Mumbai-born music maestro Zubin Mehta said he failed to understand why artists, writers filmmakers and scientists were returning their state awards and suggested those protesting against the government should engage in a dialogue with it.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury demanded that the Modi government listen to what the "eminent minds" have to say.
A statement by a group of 250 academics including professors from leading institutions like Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Madras Institute of Development Studies, IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta, expressed "shock" at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "late response" to the incidents of intolerance.
"We as social scientists, scholars, teachers and concerned citizens, feel extremely concerned about the lynching at Dadri, and the murders of scholars and thinkers like M M Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and others and wish to register our strong protest," it said.
The Sangh questioned why the protesting public intellectuals did not speak up in the past when the Godhra train burning incident occurred or when Kashmiri Pandits were targeted in the Valley.
"A handful of people returning awards are losing ground... It is indeed a political, desperate, frustrated act of these people to keep their shop running...They feel they can make RSS the punching bag in the name of intolerance.
"The RSS is not a punching bag for any of these so-called liberal, pseudo-secular, intolerant people," RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told reporters in Patna.
It accused them of political conspiracy to create an atmosphere that religious intolerance had increased after the formation of BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, and added "the reality is just the opposite".
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader said the so-called intelligentsia are finding themselves misfit and are desperately trying to be in the news through such "politically motivated acts".
Hosabale said the "intolerance" of such kinds has been there for the last 60 years, but such people preferred to remain quiet.
Stressing that RSS had always condemned such incidents, Hosabale said the developments show "intolerance" on the part of the handful of people who linked such incidents to BJP and RSS.
Fadnavis said that whenever there are (such) incidents in Congress or Communist ruled governments, artists never spoke of returning their awards but do so when it is Modi's rule. "If artists keep returning their awards, nobody will be able to save this country," he said.
