There were incidents of intolerance under Congress too, says Munawwar Rana

Poet Munawwar Rana, who returned his Sahitya Akademi award last month, has spoken out in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's media statement on intolerance.

During PM Modi's first interaction with the media after talks with British PM David Cameron on Thursday, a BBC reporter asked him about the issue of intolerance in India. Modi replied by saying that India is the land of Buddha and Gandhi and does not accept anything that goes against basic social values.

On 18 October, Rana returned the Sahitya Akademi award he received in 2014 for his book Shahdaba - in protest of the growing intolerance in the country.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, had lashed out at Modi for "not taking responsibility for the growing intolerance". Congress said the entire world was pointing fingers at India because of his actions.

However, Rana said that Modi spoke on intolerance the way a PM should and that there was nothing wrong about his reply. He said it would be challenge for Modi to implement whatever he said in London.

Badshah jo hota hai vo 60 saal ki ghaltiyaan 5 saal mein sahi kar sakta hai,hume ummeed hai-Munawwar Rana,Poet

- ANI (@ANI_news) November 13, 2015

He also said that the incidents of intolerance were visible even when Congress was in power.