Twitterati, Smriti Irani Slam BBC India for Ignoring Sania Mirza in 'Hingis Wins Wimbledon Doubles Final' Tweet

BBC India landed in trouble on Sunday when its Twitter handle posted a tweet, saying, "Hingis wins Wimbeldon doubles final," ignoring Indian tennis player Sania Mirza.

The tweet came moments after the Indo-Swiss pair of Mirza and Martina Hingis won the Wimbledon women's doubles title on 12 July.

The broadcaster faced the flak from Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, who responded to the tweet saying, "@BBCIndia so does Sania Mirza".

@BBCIndia Hingis wins Wimbledon doubles final" irked @SmritiIrani So does Sania Mirza & forces BBCIndia to apologise pic.twitter.com/uxLHkMEkmV

— Main Hoon Na (@SwachhPolitics) July 13, 2015

The BJP leader's response prompted BBC India to retract the earlier tweet and post a corrected version, "India's Sania Mirza wins women's Wimbledon doubles with Martina Hingis: (Correcting earlier tweet - apologies!)."

India's Sania Mirza wins women's Wimbledon doubles with Martina Hingis: http://t.co/QUg1GCfAwK (Correcting earlier tweet - apologies!)

— BBC India (@BBCIndia) July 12, 2015

Others too lashed out at BBC for missing out Mirza's name in the earlier tweet, which showed Hingis as the only winner.

Please don't forget @MirzaSania BBC. Doubles means two people... "@BBCWorld: Hingis wins Wimbledon doubles final http://t.co/1zS1VbM9nm" — Robin Hosking (@robinhosking) July 11, 2015

Shame..BBC does not know that ' doubles ' is played by 2 people. Sania and Hingis wins Wimbledon doubles final https://t.co/Kv5dOPN3Mw

— Ankit Chaudhary (@entrepreneur987) July 12, 2015

She played with two rackets. "@BBCIndia: Hingis wins Wimbledon doubles final http://t.co/4vuY4vipRz" — hawashmi (@hawashmi) July 12, 2015

How can 'one' Hingis win 'doubles?' "@BBCIndia: Hingis wins Wimbledon doubles final http://t.co/OVwMxITzTN"

— Ina (@Ina_kshk) July 12, 2015 

One of the users went to the extent of calling the broadcaster as racist and asked whether the person who posted the earlier tweet was fired.

BBC India replied to the comment, saying that the earlier one was an automated tweet.

@harishv It was an automated tweet, which we corrected and apologised for.

— BBC India (@BBCIndia) July 12, 2015