A derisive tweet by author Shobha Dee on the Indian contingent at the Rio Olympics has caused a social media storm.

On Monday, De mocked Indian sportspersons for clicking selfies in Brazil and claimed that the money spent on them was a waste.

It had been a bad day for the Indian contingent at the Olympics with trap shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai failing to progress to the semi-final stage in the men's event.

The men's hockey team also lost out to Germany towards the end of the game with 1-2. The women's team was thrashed by the Britain 0-3.

Archer Laxmirani Majhi was eliminated from the women's individual archery event, losing to Slovakia's Alexandra Longova in four sets in the round of 64.

The day ended with swimmers Sajan Prakash and Shivani Kataria failing to qualify for the semi-finals of the men's 200 metre butterfly and women's 200 metre freestyle events respectively.

In her Twitter spiel, De chose to remain partial towards shooter Abhinav Bindra, referring to him as a "champion".

Unfortunately for De, Bindra hit back at the author on behalf of the Indian contingent. Bindra missed an Olympic medal by a minuscule margin, finishing fourth in the 10m Air Rifle event. It was Bindra's last Olympics as a participant.

De did not bend despite the outrage on Twitter. She stood by her earlier tweets, clarifying that she had not referred to a particular player. She added that players were entitled to their own opinions.

Twitter's reaction to her remarks was swift.

Former Indian marathon runner Sunita Godara, in an interview to ANI News, said, "Isko kya pata? Ye author hogi apni jagah. Isko ab thook kay chaatna padega." What does she know? She must be an author in her own place. She will now have to swallow her own words.

Godara pointed out that reaching the Olympics too is a feat — "Even if our players are not winning it is really tough to reach that level."

Other sportspersons echoed the Godara's response.