Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has come under heavy criticism after he recently tweeted that for the United Kingdom to accept Rishi Sunak from the minority community to assume charge of its “most powerful office” is “very rare,” asking if the same could ever happen in India.

After it became clear that Sunak has enough support from the Conservatives to become the country’s next Prime Minister,  Tharoor tweeted, “If this does happen, I think all of us will have to acknowledge that the Brits have done something very rare in the world, to place a member of a visible minority in the most powerful office. As we Indians celebrate the ascent of @RishiSunak, let’s honestly ask: can it happen here?”

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However, Twitter users were quick to correct the Thiruvananthapuram MP on his assertion and cited the example of Dr Manmohan Singh, who was from the minority Sikh community, and served as the Prime Minister of India for two successive full terms from 2004 to 2014. Several users were surprised by Tharoor’s remarks as he had also been a part of Singh’s cabinet. Others took to the social media platform to point out several names of Indian presidents from the Muslim community.

Here are some of the reactions on Twitter:

The 42-year-old Sunak on Tuesday scripted history by becoming the first ever Indian-origin Prime Minister of Britain. Sunak was considered the favourite for the prime ministerial race after Liz Truss stepped down after an infamous short stint at office.

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Tharoor has recently been in the eye of the storm after his poll agent Salman Soz alleged several irregularities and election fraud in the recently held Congress party presidential polls, where Tharoor was up against Mallikarjun Kharge. Responding to Tharoor and his team’s allegations, the party stated that Tharoor was presenting one face before the Congress and another face before the media.

On Monday, Tharoor tweeted another picture showing a still from Aamir Khan’s Lagaan and a picture of Rishi Sunak and captioned the image, “Lagaan se Lagaam tak, in just 75 years. Jai Hind.”