Feb. 10: Narendra Modi today ridiculed Rahul Gandhi as the leader on whom the Internet had the "maximum jokes", unwittingly lending credence to the Opposition's allegation in Parliament that the Prime Minister endorses trolls.

"There is a Congress leader who has a habit of buffoonery... if you surf Google, you will see that. Perhaps, there is no other leader with so many jokes. His way of speaking and behaving... everything," the Prime Minister told a rally at Bijnor in western Uttar Pradesh, without naming the Congress-vice president.

But within hours, Modi was served a cruel reminder that Google - the search engine he had just recommended to voters - forgets nothing. Screenshots of Modi's photographs showing up alongside Dawood Ibrahim's in Google search results for "top 10 criminals" in June 2015 were back in circulation.

Google had apologised "for any confusion or misunderstanding this has caused" and removed Modi's photograph but by then enough screenshots had been saved for a day like today.

The Prime Minister was also given a refresher course on the number of Internet jokes on him - his election nickname " Feku" was back in currency - as Twitterati accused him of trolling Rahul days after the issue of trolls was raised in Parliament.

On February 2, Trinamul's leader in the House, Derek O' Brien, had said: "26 Twitter handles that give out rape threats, communal threats, are followed by the Prime Minister of India. 26! Two of these Twitter handles have been suspended by Twitter.... These Twitter trolls are paid handles.... They are invited to the Prime Minister's House for a nice digital social media party."

This week, O'Brien followed this up with a question to the home ministry: will it advice people occupying constitutional positions to refrain from following trolls who heap abuse on dissenting voices on social media? Junior home minister Hansraj Ahir was non-committal but textile minister Smriti Irani rose in defence of an individual identified as a "troll" by O'Brien.

In Bijnor today, the Prime Minister said of Rahul: "His activities are such that even many senior leaders of the Congress would like to stay 10 feet away from him."

The Prime Minister also questioned Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's "intelligence" for tying up with the Congress and said he felt "disappointed" to see the Samajwadi Party leader's "friendship" with Rahul.

"Akhileshji, you hugged the leader from whom his own party leaders keep a distance. I used to think Akhilesh is an educated youth... maybe he is trying to learn... I had hoped that a youth (leader) will emerge in politics. But now I doubt the intelligence of Akhileshji," he said.

• Bijnor votes on February 15