Novelist Chetan Bhagat probably thought he was being funny when he posted on his Twitter account: "There are no quotas for Olympic medals. Damn." In no time, a flurry of outraged tweets pointed out that he had failed to be humorous.
While some stressed the necessity of the quota system in India, others spoke of the enormous challenges athletes in the country have to overcome to take part in the Olympics.
One Twitter handle, History of India, said: "There is no quota in Olympics yet India's first individual medal was won by a Dalit named Khashaba Jadhav (1952)." Jadhav, known as the Pocket Dynamo, had bagged a bronze medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
He was, however, not the first Indian to get an individual medal - Norman Pritchard, who represented India at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, had won two silvers. The message to Bhagat was loud and clear: glib comments on reservations are not funny.
