Anantkumar Hegde had on Sunday said "any hand that touches a Hindu girl should not exist".
Union minister Anantkumar Hegde's inflammatory statement that "any hand that touches a Hindu girl should not exist" was countered with a dare from Tehseen Poonawalla on Twitter.
Tehseen Poonawalla, who describes himself as a political trends watcher, a life coach, an entrepreneur and a columnist, posted a photograph with his Hindu wife and captioned it as: "Good afternoon @AnantkumarH . See my hands are touching my hindu life (sic) ..Now do what u can !! It's a dare sir!!"
Mr Poonawalla is married to Robert Vadra's cousin Monicka Vadera. The Gandhi family had attended the Poonawalla-Vadera wedding in 2016.
The Twitter post got over 2,500 likes and was retweeted about 500 times. His post also got a thumbs up from Aam Aadmi Party leader Alka Lamba, who said "God bless both of you". But those who didn't agree with him, questioned his intention.
One of the comments to the tweet said, "GF, wife is ok Tehseen, but I'm sure you wouldn't want nor endorse any stranger touching a lady lasciviously."
Another Twitter user urged Mr Poonawalla not to "use his wife as a political tool". "Actually this is not a dare thing unless your wife is not your boss. The dare is when some unknown adult male touches your wife. And what a pitty (sic) man, You have to use your wife in political or social media messaging," the user added.
Mr Poonawalla tried to silence trolls by saying, "My wife and my dignity is in the fact ..That I love her loads actually we love each other loads and we are a couple in open and in love !! Unlike some people , we won't dump the other."
The BJP leader from Karnataka had controversially said on Sunday, "We have to rethink the priorities of our society. We shouldn't think of caste.If a Hindu girl is touched by a hand, then that hand should not exist."