Subramanian Swamy 'appoints' Narendra Modi as a Brahmin on Twitter 'through authority vested in him'; sparks off controversy

Bharatiya Janata Party's loose cannon Subramanian Swamy sparked off yet another controversy on Twitter after 'appointing' the party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi a Brahmin.

"With the authority vested in me I hereby appoint Namo as a Brahmin since he has Brahminical gunas," Swamy tweeted from his handle @Swamy39, opening the floodgates of both scorn and back-slapping from fans and dissenters online.

Swamy, known for his provocative tweets, was responding to the ongoing caste debate after Congress President referred to Modi's brand of politics as 'neech' (low).

Gandhi had berated his "insult" of Rajiv Gandhi and said such "low-level" thought and words does not behove him and national politics. The BJP Prime Ministerial candidate had said Rajiv, a former PM, had publicly humiliated a Congress chief minister when he was the party's general secretary to claim it was the ruling party leaders who practiced the politics of anger and arrogance and not him.

Modi also later charged Congress with starting the politics of "untouchability and hatred" and Sonia Gandhi of resorting to "unch aur neech" politics for salvaging the "lost political ground" in the ongoing elections.

Responding to Congress charge that Modi was a "fake" OBC, Gujarat government had cited a two-decade old notification which says the Modh-Ghanchi (oil-pressers) caste, to which Modi belongs, was included in Other Backward Castes (OBCs) category.

Swamy's comment fuelled scores of sarcastic tweets with the trending hash tag #WithTheAuthorityVestedInMe.

Here are some samples:

#WithTheAuthorityVestedInMe I hereby declare Ashok Dinda as an unidentified and unnecessarily flying object (UUFO)

Yogendra Yadav: #WithTheAuthorityVestedInMe, I hereby attest that Arvind is the messiah of secularism and incorruptibility

#WithTheAuthorityVestedInMe... I declare Omar Abdullah as brand ambassador of Pashmina shawls... and foot-in-the-mouth...

#WithTheAuthorityVestedInMe I hereby declare Gaana dot com as India's best streaming music site because it has all the gaanas.

#WithTheAuthorityVestedInMe I pronounce you and Twitter man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.