Javed Akhtar becomes 1st Indian to get Richard Dawkins Award

Bollywood Desk: Lyrists Javed Akhtar was honoured with Richard Dawkins Award 2020 for critical thinking, holding religious dogma up to scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values. Akhtar is the only Indian ever to have been honoured. Previous recipients include Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens.

Akhtar, with his rigorous tweets on topics like CAA, Tablighi Jamaat, islamophobia etc have been at the centre of his public persona apart from being a celebrated lyricist and writer in Indian cinema.

The award is named after the world-renowned biologist is presented to those who publicly speak about secularism, rationalism and uphold scientific truth. The Richard Dawkins Award is an annual award that was presented by the Atheist Alliance of America up until July 2019 when it moved to the Center for Inquiry.