It’s been a difficult 15-odd hours for Chairman of Essel Group and Zee’s Big Daddy, Dr Subhash Chandra. Last night, subsumed with swadesi feelz, Chandra tweeted this:

We’d like to believe that there is a singer named Rabinder, in the Punjabi heartland, who saw Chandra championing his music and burst out in delighted song. Perhaps there can be a biopic on him (with Sunny Deol playing Rabinder, naturally) and Zee Music could sell the soundtrack.

However, it turns out that Chandra was attempting to show his cultured side by making a reference to the songs written by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Nothing shows deep-rooted respect and knowledge of Indian culture than misspelling Rabindra Sangeet. Chandra has since been trolled steadfastly, particularly since Zee Music isn’t known for being particularly sophisticated in its acquisitions.

Leaving aside Chandra’s spelling skills (or lack thereof), we can’t help wondering whether Chandra was actually sly-tweeting at Narendra Modi, who showed up via video conference before Coldplay began its two-hour performance at Global Citizen Festival India on Saturday, in Mumbai. Not only was Modi evidently appreciative of Coldplay — “I know that I stand between you and Coldplay and so I will make this brief” — he went on to quote Bob Dylan. Considering Chandra’s proud claim of belonging to “Bharatiya School of thoughts”, he was probably not amused.

We figure the following thoughts ran through Chandra’s head. If the Prime Minister wanted to quote a Nobel laureate, why not Tagore? In fact, why pander to this Western construct of the Nobel in the first place? Why not quote a Bharatiya Jnanpith award winner, dammit? What is this attempt to establish a kind of sameness with those cashless yuppies who were shrieking at the sight of Western musicians? Why were there no Rabinders or Rabindra Sangeet singers in the Global Citizen Festival?

It is obviously the kind of callow, uninformed admiration of the West that Chandra is referring to in tweets like this one, in which he defends his pro-Rabinder stand.

Or maybe he’s sly-tweeting to someone called Narinder…?