Defending her decision to return the Sahitya Akademi award, author and Jawaharlal Nehru's niece Nayantara Sahgal called the ruling NDA government "fascist" asking, "will the real Mr Modi stand up?" She added, "it infuriates me the mockery that Hindutva has made out of Hinduism". Talking of her cousin Indira Gandhi whose imposition of the Emergency she fiercely opposed, she said, "Indira was a democrat gone wrong."