In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, with the BJP stepping up its 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had changed his name on Twitter to 'Chowkidar' Narendra Modi. Other BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, Piyush Goyal and Ravi Shankar Prasad followed suit and changed their names on the social media platform. BJP leaders, including Union ministers and chief ministers, launched a coordinated campaign to seek support from the people in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Among the BJP leaders who abstained from renaming themsleves on the micro-blogging site was MP Subramanian Swamy. When asked the reason, by a Tamil news channel, he said that he was a brahmin and thus cannot be a chowkidar. This evoked social media outrage, with several commentators calling the statement casteist.
Later, through Twitter, he clarified his statements. "[sic]I have never believed in birth based Varna. Hence I talk of what Krishna said in Gita: My Gunas make me an intellectual. I prosecute the corrupt/chors using my brains."
"[sic] Varnashram is not based on birth but on gunas, as Krishna says in Gita. Duffers morons and paid tweeples of the cartel can’t get that through their thick skulls."
"[sic] I happy my truncated statement of being a Brahmin has smoked out the clandestine anti Brahmin embedded campaign financed by anti national forces. Some have paid patronage of the unelectable parasites in BJP who out of panic and fear of the future rising Hindutva, are screaming."