A group of Indians were planning to inaugurate a new temple shrine to prime minister Narendra Modi near the city of Rajkot in his home state of Gujarat this week. Here's a picture from one Indian newspaper:
A temple for @narendramodi in Rajkot - http://t.co/K56kEQx0fT
But the Modi fans have hastily shelved those plans after the PM tweeted his disapproval, several local media outlets reported.
Have seen the news about a Temple being built in my name. I was appalled. This is shocking & against India's great traditions.
Building such Temples is not what our culture teaches us. Personally, it made me very sad. Would urge those doing it not to do it.
Modi is usually pretty comfortable with anything that bigs him up. He came to power last May after a presidential-style campaign that centered almost solely on him and put his Hindu nationalist party in the background.
And then there was the suit with his name embroidered on it thousands of times, which he wore during U.S. President Barack Obama's visit last month.
And also the selfie-with-Modi booths that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set up in New Delhi in the run-up to the capital's local assembly election earlier this week.
A chance like this #SELFIEwithMODI comes rare! Get going to the nearest Selfie Booth #Delhi to make the most of it!
The Modi idol will now be removed, Ramesh Undhad, the leader of a local group who donated money to have the statue made, told The Hindu. Undhad said the temple contained photographs of Modi since 2006 but the community had only recently found an artist who could make a good statue of him.
A temple in northern India had a small shrine of Modi in it last year, and temples have also been dedicated to the opposition Congress party's chief, Sonia Gandhi, and the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar by their fans, the Indian website scroll.in reported. Many Indian politicians actively create a "cult of personality" around themselves and their supporters sometimes wear masks of their faces.
Modi's tweets came during a humbling week for the prime minister that saw the BJP trounced in the Delhi elections on Tuesday. The upstart antiestablishment Aam Aadmi Party won 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly, giving it control of India's capital.