Union minister Anantkumar Hegde Friday stoked a controversy by calling Congress President Rahul Gandhi a "moron" for his tweet that 'Modilies' is a new word in the English dictionary.
"This moron @RahulGandhi is hell bent on proving himself that he is one of his own kind of international idiotic skill master and hence the horizons have extended beyond the boundaries. No one can prevent his growth... Amazing...!!!!" the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship tweeted.
Gandhi had tweeted Wednesday that there was a new word in the English dictionary and even attached a snapshot of it.
"There's a new word in the English Dictionary. Attached is a snapshot of the entry :) 'Modilie' is a new word that's become popular worldwide. Now there's even a website that catalogues the best Modilies!" Gandhi tweeted.
The snapshot shows that 'Modilies' means to constantly modify the truth, to lie incessantly and habitually and to lie without respite.
The snapshot also showed how to use this word in sentences.
A rebuttal came from the Twitter handle of Oxford Dictionaries.
It said the snapshot was fake and no such words exist in any of the Oxfords dictionaries.
"We can confirm that the image showing the entry 'Modilie' is fake and does not exist in any of our Oxford Dictionaries," Oxford Dictionaries tweeted.
Meanwhile, amid reports of the Minister's controversial remarks on Twitter about Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi, Hegde claimed his account was "hacked".
He, however, said there was no question of justifying Mahatma Gandhi's killing.
"My Twitter account has been breached twice in the past one week and certain tweets have been posted on my timeline which have been discarded and deleted. Regret the posts attributed to me."
"My account was hacked since yesterday. There is no question of justifying Gandhi ji's murder. There can be no sympathy or justification of Gandhi ji's murder. We all have full respect for Gandhi ji's contribution to the nation," he posted.