Brahmin body files case against Twitter CEO for posing with 'Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy' placard

New Delhi, Nov 23: A Brahmin organisation has filed a case of defamation against Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey for allegedly hurting the "religious sentiments" of the community, reported DNA on Friday.

The case was filed before a metropolitan magistrate in Rajasthan's Jodhpur.

Dorsey was attacked for seemingly endorsing a casteist slur against the Brahmin community and allegedly inciting hate against it. Former Infosys director Mohandas Pai tweeted: "@Twitter @TwitterIndia So if anybody gives you a hate poster, will you blindly showcase it or apply your judgement? This is a juvenile excuse for an unpardonable offence of hate mongering; it is obvious you have taken @jack up the garden path, misled him!"

The case was filed by the Vipra Foundation's youth wing Vice President Rajkumar Sharma over a photo shared in which Dorsey is seen posing with a poster that read "Smash Brahminical Patriarchy". The photo was taken during Dorsey's recent meeting with a group of women journalists in India.

Sharma's counsel HM Saraswat said the case has been filed under Sections 295A (hurting religious sentiment), 500 (defamation), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. It will come up for hearing on December 1.

Meanwhile, Sanghapali Aruna, the one who gifted Dorsey the controversial poster wrote on a portal, "Brahminical patriarchy controls all of us in more ways than one. Brahmin women have been one of the victims of this hegemony. The 'Smash Brahminical patriarchy' poster which I gifted to Jack Dorsey was questioning precisely this hegemony and concentration of power in the hands of one community. This wasn't an attempt at hate speech against the Brahmins, but was an attempt to challenge the dominance and sense of superiority that finds its origins in the caste system."

Twitter, which has over 300 million monthly active users, counts India as among its largest markets. It has a large number of Indian politicians on its platform, who engage regularly with the public and extensively use it around elections.