NEW DELHI: Oxford Dictionaries was dragged into India’s bitter election on Thursday as it rubbished a claim that “Modilie” — referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — is a recognised word.

Rahul Gandhi, Modi’s main challenger in the election, tweeted what he said was a screen shot of an online dictionary entry for the word combining the words Modi and lie. “There’s a new word in the English Dictionary. Attached is a snapshot of the entry :),” the scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty wrote in a post forwarded almost 10,000 times.

The image used a similar font, layout and logo to Oxford Dictionaries’ website, but did not use the word Oxford. Oxford Dictionaries replied on its verified Twitter account. “We can confirm that the image showing the entry ‘Modilie’ is fake and does not exist in any of our Oxford Dictionaries,” it said.

Gandhi, 48, also tweeted a link to a website called www.modilies.in that he said “catalogues the best Modilies!”

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2019