Actor Shabana Azmi on Tuesday slammed trolls that have been going viral online saying that her husband Javed Akhtar who recently won the Richard Dawkins Award 2020 was only nominated for it and hadn’t won the title yet.
On Sunday Javed Akhtar announced that he is deeply honoured to receive the award, named after English evolutionary biologist and author.
Although Dawkins has already confirmed the news of writer Javed’s award win for the year 2020, Shabana Azmi took to Twitter to prove the win.
THIS IS PATENTLY UNTRUE! We have an email from Richard Dawkins on 5th June offering the award and also from Robyn Blumner who heads the Centre for Inquiry USA.I feel sad 4 these pathetic trolls who do not care that they will stand exposed in seconds 4 such a preposterous claim ! https://t.co/Ro1ejCNSdk
— Azmi Shabana (@AzmiShabana) June 9, 2020
The Veteran actor tweeted,” This is patently untrue! We have an email from Richard Dawkins on 5th June offering the award.”
The actor also mentioned in her tweet that Javed Akhtar has been directly in touch with the head of the Centre for Inquiry, Robyn Blummer from the US for the win and calls the trolls a “preposterous claim,” while reacting to a Whatsapp screenshot.
The Whatsapp conversation suggested that the person claiming to be Javed has mistaken the nomination for the award as a win.
Javed Akhtar @Javedakhtarjadu is the 2020 Richard Dawkins Award winner and I could not be more pleased. The Center for Inquiry, on whose board I sit, has designated him this year's recipient for his courageous public stands on behalf of atheism, rationality, and freethought.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) June 9, 2020
Later Dawkins finally Tweeted on Tuesday congratulating Akhtar for the Richard Dawkins Award win which cleared all doubts
The Richard Dawkins Award is one prestigious title for individuals who “publicly proclaim the values of secularism, rationalism, upholding scientific truth.” Among many other winners, Javed Akhtar is the first Indian who has been bestowed with this honour.