'Hoping this pronoun illness doesn't reach India...": Bhavish Aggarwal slams copying West blindly
‘Hoping this pronoun illness doesn’t reach India…
Ola co-founder and CEO of Ola Cabs Bhavish Aggarwal slammed “pronoun illness” and hoped that it never reaches the country. The founder of Ola Electric also wanted to know where to draw the line in following the west blindly!
The founder of OlaKrutrim, an AI company, took to X (formally Twitter) to share his thought on gender pronouns and sparked a heated debate on the microblogging platform.
“Hoping that this “pronoun illness” doesn’t reach India. Many “big city schools” in India are now teaching it to kids. Also see many CVs with pronouns these days. Need to know where to draw the line in following the west blindly!” he wrote while sharing a screenshot of his interaction with the LinkdIn AI bot.
Aggarwal asked LinkedIn’s AI bot about himself to which the chatbot used “they” and “their” terms to address the CEO.
This “pronouns illness” is being perpetuated in India by MNCs without us Indians even realising it, he claimed.
“Most of us in India have no clue about politics of this pronouns illness. People do it because it’s become expected in our corporate culture, especially MNCs,” Aggarwal wrote in another tweet, adding “Better to send this illness back where it came from.”
The Ola CEO’s post became a hotbed of debate and some users expressed disappointment in him. Some wholeheartedly agreed with him, others advocated the need for gender pronouns.
“Totally agree. We cannot import it when we have real issues on the ground. But this is up to the MNCs and government of India. Employees will be forced to follow it up,” wrote a user.
“I disagree with you here. This doesn’t hurt anyone and do you really think having pronouns on CVs would impact your decision to hire an individual?” one user questioned.
“Thank god. There is hope. A CEO and influencer speaking against this illness,” another user commented.
“Respecting pronouns is a basic act of decency, not an illness. Using someone’s correct pronouns is the bare minimum, to respect LGBTQ+ folks. You’re tweeting this just a month before Pride Month is celebrated and I’d suggest you take this time to follow thought queer leaders in India to understand their journey, struggles and needs. If you’d like a few recommendations to some individuals, organisations and workshop facilitators doing the important work of LGBTQ+ advocacy and education, hit me up,” added a user.
“Why am I not surprised? Just disappointed in you. Such potential,” wrote one.
On May 4, the founder of OlaKrutrim, an AI company, launched a mobile app for its chatbot, which will compete with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The company also announced opening up its cloud platform — Krutrim Cloud — to enterprises, developers and researchers, to help them develop technology products at lower costs.
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