Intolerance is there, but awards shouldn't be returned: Raima Sen

Actress Raima Sen on Wednesday said there was intolerance in the country, but opposed the writers, scientists and filmmakers returning their awards on the issue, terming their action "stupidity".

Raima said she would never have done so.

"I think that is just trying to prove a point. I don't think this should be done . This is stupidity," Raima, daughter of actress Moon Moon Sen and granddaughter of Suchitra Sen, told mediapersons when asked about the spate of "award wapasi" recently seen in the country.

Raima said an award should never be returned.

"I think that's not the way I would do it. Once given, an award should not be returned," she said three days ahead of her 37th birthday on November 7.

Raima also pointed out that lot of artistes and writers have declared they would not return their awards.

"A lot of people are also saying they wouldn't return the awards. Yes! Intolerance is there. But lot of people are also not returning the awards."

Raima, however, refused to be drawn further into issues like the beef controversy and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sadhvi Prachi calling actor Shah Rukh Khan a "Pakistani agent".

"I have no comments on these issues, I don't want to be drawn into a controversy," the actress said at the launch of the hotel Aauris.

A host of well-known writers, filmmakers, scientists and historians have announced the return of awards and honours as a mark of protest against recent events like the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri of Uttar Pradesh over beef, the murder of Kannada rationalist scholar M.M. Kalburgi and police "raid" in Delhi's Kerala House.