Shiv Sena (UBT) member Priyanka Chaturvedi criticised edtech company Unacademy for firing one of its instructors, Karan Sangwan, calling the action “shameful” because Sangwan’s viewpoint will “positively influence young minds.”
Chaturvedi questioned how Sangwan’s advice to “vote for educated candidates and not for those who only change names” could be seen as biassed.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the Shiv Sena (UBT) MP wrote, “How does saying vote for literate politicians a biased opinion? Doesn’t that opinion positively influence young minds? Shame if merely expressing this view gets you to take someone’s job, Unacademy.”
“Don’t understand why everyone felt Karan Sangwan, the professor’s opinion on educated leaders was about Mr. Supreme. Repeat of Kajol level trolling, but here it cost him his job,” she added.
Arvind Kejriwal, the national leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the chief minister of Delhi, also criticised the edtech platform’s decision earlier on Wednesday and agreed with Sangwan that “People’s representatives cannot be illiterate.”
Is encouraging educated people to vote against the law? I admire someone if they are illiterate. Representatives of the people, however, cannot be illiterate. The age of science and technology is now. Public officials who lack literacy cannot create the modern India of the twenty-first century, Kerjiwal wrote on X.
Sangwan’s remarks immediately gained popularity on social media, and in response, Unacademy co-founder Roman Saini declared that the organisation was firing Sangwan for violating the “Code of Conduct.”
Meanwhile, Karan Sangwan declared that he would discuss the matter on his YouTube channel on August 19th. During a presentation, Sangwan, an LLM in criminal law, was reportedly outlining the most recent legislation that the Union government has submitted to the Lok Sabha to replace the IPC, CrPC, and Indian Evidence Act from the British era. He was bemoaning the fact that all of his prepared notes on criminal legislation were useless.
After his remarks, many claimed that Sangwan was “pushing political propaganda in the name of education.”
“Karan Sangwan, a teacher of law at @unacademy, is pleading with students not to vote for the BJP once more. Is this the educational revolution Roman Saini mentions? On X, a user posted.
Later,”#UninstallUnacademy” started trending on the microblogging site, with many users supporting his opinion on choosing educated political representatives.
In a video clip, the educator can be heard saying, “Even I don’t know whether to laugh or cry because I also have a lot of bare acts, caseloads, and notes that I had prepared. It is hard work for everyone. You also got a job at your hand.”
He further says, “But keep in mind one thing. Next time vote for someone who is well-educated so you don’t have to go through this (ordeal) again. Ok?”
Sangwan adds, “Aise insaan ko chune jo padha likha ho, jo samajh sake cheezon ko. Sirf aise insaan ko na chune jinko sirf badalna aata ho, naam change karna aata ho (elect someone who is educated, who understands things. Don’t elect someone who only knows changing names) Make your decision properly.”
