New Delhi: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey faced the brunt of the Twitterati over holding a placard that read ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy’ during his recent visit to India.

Dorsey met with a group of women journalists, activists, and writers of known political affiliation over a roundtable discussion on how Indians experience the micro-blogging website.

The event took a sour turn after writer and journalist Anna MM Vetticad handed the placard to Dorsey and posted a photograph of the same on Twitter.

Twitter India retweeted it, with the caption, “Recently we hosted a closed-door discussion with a group of women journalists and change makers from India to better understand their experience using Twitter. One of the participants, a Dalit activist, shared her personal experiences and gifted a poster to Jack.” ‏

Shortly thereafter, the image stirred controversy and Dorsey was severely criticised and trolled on social media.

Twitter users accused the CEO of racism, bigotry, and of engaging in hate speech.

Former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai tweeted, “What a shame; How can people put such a hate poster and malign a community: @jack How can you as CEO of @twitter be party to this kind of hate? Shocking; this is @brahminphobia of the worst kind”.

Twitter India later issued a conditional apology for the same, saying, “It is not a statement from Twitter or our CEO, but a tangible reflection of our company's efforts to see, hear and understand all sides of important public conversations that happen on our service around the world”.

Here’s how other Twitter users reacted to the incident: