Even for Internet standards this is a new low.


Former union minister Arun Shourie told NDTV that he has been the target of severe abuse online by BJP supporters ever since he turned a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


Shourie, a one-time admirer of Modi, also said that the BJP supporters did not even spare his son, who has cerebral palsy.


"If you gave me an opportunity to read the kind of abuse that has been hurled at me and my handicapped son, your viewers will be horrified," Shourie told NDTV, citing one such insensitive remark. "They wrote, 'Iska mental son hai, woh aur bhi mental banega.' These damned fools are followed by the PM on the social media," he said.


A visibly upset Mr Shourie made the remarks during a discussion on the perception that the BJP's election campaign in Bihar was negative and often divisive. "The result of this election has been that the direction the country was being hurled, which was division, which was abuse, has been blocked by the people of Bihar."


Shourie also said that several of these 'influencers' were abusive on Twitter, and that despite their continuing  abuse, the PM followed them on the micro-blogging site.


Read what Shourie said about the BJP here