Panaji: After attracting controversy following a fracas between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters at the Madison Square garden in September, senior editor and television anchor Rajdeep Sardesai appears to have made news again.

This time it’s over a tweet he uploaded Sunday during the cabinet expansion ceremony, in which the Padmashri award winner was rooting for the regionally influential Goud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) caste, which he belongs to, and celebrating the induction of two persons with familial Goan connections, Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu, in the Union Cabinet.

Sardesai, son of Goa-born legendary cricketer Dilip Sardesai had tweeted: “Big day for my goa. Two GSBs, both talented politicians become full cabinet ministers. Saraswat pride!! @manoharparrikar and Suresh Prabhu”.

The tweet has triggered a wide swath of protest in Goa’s buzzing social media circles, some of whom have called him an alleged “casteist”.

Yugank Naik, a PhD scholar from Goa, told me the comment was deeply disturbing.

“Rajdeep has damaged the cause and the ethos of journalism… Sardesai called Modi fanatics as Internet Hindus and Bhakts. He also faced their ire outside Madison Square. Sardesai now put us, who once believed in his secular credentials, in a difficult situation,” Naik said, demanding an expression of regret from Sardesai.

The GSB are a tiny, but rich, influential and well-networked social group from Goa and the Konkan region. Most of Goa’s powerful mining families, who have been traditionally running shadow governments, are from the same GSB grouping, as are two successive chief ministers from Goa: Digambar Kamat of the Congress and Manohar Parrikar of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

While theories about how the GSB came to settle in the Konkan belt abound, the most commonly believed theory suggests that they were ancient settlers in the Saraswati river basin who settled along the Konkan belt after a spell of migration across Bengal and Bihar.

The community is represented amply in a cross section of the Goa’s socio-elite and includes prominent business persons, professionals, artistes, etc.

But the GSB community’s success and network has also attracted criticism from the more populous castes.

Of Goan origin, Kaustubh Naik, who studies in New Delhi says: “Nothing great in taking pride in people inducted in power who hail from communities who are already privileged”.

“Too bad for him that Shri Narendra Modi is proud of his NON-GSB roots,” says Miguel Braganza, a horticulture consultant and a columnist on facebook, rebuking the senior journalist.

Samir Kelekar, an Indian Institute of Technology and Columbia University alumnus (and a GSB himself) has referred to the tweet as “sick” and “casteist”.

BJP MLA Vishnu Wagh, who has over the years eloquently critiqued the overt Brahmanical influence in several walks of Goan life including politics and religion, in his facebook post Sunday, also obliquely critiqued Sardesai’s praise of the GSB community.

“They (GSB) have their own mutts and swamis which are not open to general Hindus. Their Swamis too never go for functions organised by other caste Hindus. So I presume that their Swamis are not preachers of Hindu religion,” said Wagh, who is a part of a social movement seeking entry of non-GSB’s into the sanctum sanctorum of popular temples at Mangueshi and Kavkem controlled by the GSB community.

On the other hand, Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar’s response to Sardesai’s tweet is more open-ended.

“It’s his personal opinion, but in an era where journalism has evolved way above caste and religion, this comment will be best left for the readers to judge,” Kawthankar told Newslaundry.

But few, like regular facebook commentator Devu Chodankar claims there’s nothing wrong with praising a community which has excelled as a unit.

“Saraswat is a very successful community. In fact, Saraswat is the most successful community of Goa. These two have made the community proud. Sardesai has objectively stated a fact,” said Chodankar.