CAB protests: Two Urdu writers to return awards in protest of Bill passage

Writer and translator Yawar, 67, former head of the Urdu department at Banaras Hindu University, had received the UP Urdu Academy’s Lifetime Achievement award for translation in 2018.

“It’s an attack on the fundamental rights of the people of India,” Dalvi told The Indian Express, terming CAB “inhuman” and “unconstitutional”. She stated she was “returning the award to join the voices of my community” and others fighting for secularism and democracy.

In an article in The Wire Urdu published on Thursday, Dalvi wrote that the Bill discriminated against a section of people on the basis of religion, which goes against the Constitution. “As citizens of India, we are all entitled to equal rights,” she told The Indian Express over phone. The decision to return the award was her chhota sa ehtejaj (little act of protest), she said.