Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology founder-director PM Bhargava on Wednesday said he will be returning his Padma Bhushan to protest against "the government's attack on rationalism, reasoning and science", reported The Times of India. Bhargava is the first Indian scientist to join the bandwagon of writers and filmmakers returning their awards.

He said, "The Padma Bhushan had a special place in my collection of more than 100 awards for science. Now, I feel no sentimental attachment to it when the government tries to institutionalise religion and curtail freedom and scientific spirit." Bhargava had received the Padma Bhushan in 1986.

On Tuesday, 135 scientists had signed an online petition addressed to President Pranab Mukherjee regarding "the systematic spread of intolerance and communal hatred in the country". Another 107 scientists joined the protest on Wednesday, Bhargava being one of them.

The scientists declared their solidarity with writers who had returned their Sahitya Akademi awards and said that rejection of reason had led to the Dadri lynching, the assassinations of writer MM Kalburgi, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and Communist Part of India member Govind Pansare. They condemned "the climate of intolerance and the ways in which science and reason are being eroded in the country."