A video clip, appearing to show Indian parliamentarian Pakaudi Lal Kol cursing members of the priest and warrior communities has gone viral, leaving many netizens outraged.
Pakaudi Lal Kol, an MP from Apna Dal, an ally of India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), can be heard using expletives when referring to the Brahmin (priest) and Kshatriya (warrior) communities while addressing a meeting in Mirzapur in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
As soon as the video went viral, Apna Dal head and federal minister Anupriya Patel asked parliamentarian Kol to tender an apology.
Kol later released another video in which he said the previous video had been wrongly presented, but offered apologies to anybody whose sentiments were hurt.
Yet, despite Kol's apology social media users have slammed him for his abusive speech.
One Twitter user said: "One should think before speaking anything. A good leader is the one who respects every community and takes the members of all the communities along. Only then he earns respect".
Social media user Piyush Chaturvedi wrote in his tweet: "This is not the first time that a politician from Apna Dal has made inappropriate remarks on Brahmins and Kshatriyas. It has happened many times previously".
Another Twitter user said that if Kol used abusive language from a public stage then he should also tender an apology from a public platform.
Netizen Udit Sharma said: "After the video of the Apna Dal parliamentarian from Robertsganj in Uttar Pradesh abusing Brahmins-Kshatriyas went viral, the people of Sonbhadra filed a complaint against him. Their demand is that a case should be filed against Kol".