Finance minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Thursday criticised the hundreds of creative and academic personalities in the country who had returned their awards due to rising intolerance under the government, saying they are "rabid anti-BJP elements". He also alleged that some of them had gone to Varanasi to campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2014 general elections.

The union minister asked the people returning awards why their conscience had not pricked when corruption and scams to the tune of lakhs and crores of rupees were taking place during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance rule.

Jaitley said that the space of the Left has reduced and those returning awards were in a way campaigning against the BJP in the ongoing Bihar elections. Jaitley also rejected the charge that an atmosphere of intolerance was prevailing in the country and condemned all the incidents being dubbed as examples of intolerance, calling for strict action against those responsible for them.