Columnist and author Chetan Bhagat called lawyer Dushyant Arora an “India hater” on Twitter sparking online controversy on the microblogging site, after Arora posted a column on blogging platform DailyO critical of Bhagat’s open letter to Kashmiri Youth.

Arora, who is a regular tweeter with more than 3,000 followers, temporarily signed off Twitter following Bhagat’s tweet.

Twitterer @SalmanSoz had called Arora’s post a “stinging response” to Chetan Bhagat’s open letter:

“A stinging response to @chetan_bhagat by @atti_cus. Do read.”

Bhagat responded:

“Sir hardly stinging but more deluded rant from a clear India hater. don’t u think its time we did solve the problem?”

Bhagat has more than 6 million (mostly) devoted followers, and his tweet provoked at least 40 other reactions on Twitter to @SalmanSoz’ tweet, who responded with some of the following to Arora:

“What a crap and bullshit piece by @atti_cus full of malicious propoganda against armed forces.”

“I cudnt write a worse article2save my life. This Dushyant guy rants on, willy-nilly. Lives in lala land.”

“Ironically, Mr.Bhagat & Mr.Arora R 2 faces of same clueless coin. Both spouting emotions ignoring facts”

“ur ‘stinging’ reply s nothing more than emotional rant lacking hard facts and researched inputs”

Arora tweeted a little while later:

“Off Twitter for a while- not used to this deluge of name calling and hatred.”

The next morning, Bhagat claimed, however, that despite the original tweet by @SalmanSoz had linked to Arora’s DailyO column, he was really referring to Sheikh Usman’s DailyO column that was also critical of his open letter, and had only linked to Arora’s column due to an alleged “link mix up”.

Bhagat tweeted:

“Ok guys woke up this morning to see a twitter storm last night. And i think I owe an apology for the link mix-ups. will explain (1/n)”

“As response to my Kashmir letter, dozens of pieces have appeared. One of them was on @DailyO, by Sheikh Usman”

“Sheikh Usman, many pointed out, has strong anti-India stance, evident in article and anti-India tweets.This is the @dailyo article i read.”

“Around the same time, @SalmanSoz ALSO RTed a @DailyO article, which was ALSO a response to my letter, but was not by Sheikh Usman.”

“(contd). That piece @SalmanSoz RTd was from Dushyant Arora @atti_cus, who for some reason didn’t like my letter, but that’s ok, of course.”

“The mistake I did, was confused one @DailyO link with another, and replied to @SalmanSoz that the letter came from India hater. It was not.”

“I have all kinds of reactions to my columns at @atti_cus is totally entitled to his opinion. I often RT my own criticism.”

NDTV’s Barkha Dutt responded with an Open Letter To Chetan Bhagat On Kashmir From Barkha Dutt, to which Bhagat has now responded with:

Thanks @BDUTT for your open letter to me, on Kashmir. I do appreciate all these points.

Hat tip to @Rudespot for bringing the Twitter drama to our attention on his blog.