Winners of Sahitya Akademi Award for Punjabi including Sirmour Shire Mohanjit, eminent thinker Jaswinder Singh, and Punjabi playwright and editor of Punjabi Tribune Swaraj Bir Singh have returned their awards to show support for farmers' protest. This comes after SAD leader and former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal returned his Padma Vibhushan to protest "betrayal of farmers by government".