Amid a tide of protests against the Narendra Modi-led central government over intolerance, veteran actress and Trinamool Congress MP Moon Moon Sen on Tuesday added a different tenor to the controversy by extending support to the prime minister.

"I think we should give him a chance. He has done a very good job winning all those votes and we have to give him a chance as a prime minister to do anything.

"His own party (Bharatiya Janata Party) is not giving him a chance. Let's see what he does in five years and then we can go against him," Sen told a television channel.

Asked about the protests against intolerance, she said: "We have more media today, we have more cameras, we have more microphones. So the exposure is more.

"But tell me, wasn't child marriage always there? Even nowadays sati happens. These things have been prevalent in our country all along.

Today they (the protestors) are able to come together, because there is a computer, there is a website. You (the media) are there."

"There is nothing new in protesting," Sen added.

A host of well-known writes, filmmakers, scientists and historians have announced the return of awards and honours as a mark of protest against recent events like the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri of Uttar Pradesh over rumours that he had consumed beef, the murder of Kannada rationalist scholar M.M. Kalburgi, and the police "raid" in Delhi's Kerala House.