On Saturday (11th May), Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced that his company Ola Cabs would end their business with Microsoft-run cloud computing operating system Azure.
The development comes days after the professional networking site LinkedIn, also owned by Microsoft, censored his posts on woke culture and ‘pronoun illness.’
In a statement, Bhavish Aggarwal informed, “I want to confront this forced ideology as a free thinking Indian and do what I can in my capacity. So here are the actions I’m taking. Putting my money where my mouth is.”
On @Linkedin, @Microsoft and their wokeness.
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) May 11, 2024
As an Indian institution, Ola is for genuine actions on diversity. We run one of the largest women only automotive plants. Not 1 out of 10 lines, or a small section, but the whole plant! Almost 5000 women now and will grow to tens of…
He pledged support to create a social DPI social media framework with the Indian developer community, end business with Microsoft Azure and shift Ola’s cloud server to Krutrim and support any developer willing to move out of Azure.
“Since LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft and Ola is a big customer of Azure, we’ve decided to move our entire workload out of Azure to our own @Krutrim cloud within the next week. It is a challenge as all developers know, but my team is so charged up about doing this,” the Ola co-founder emphasised.
“Any other developer who wants to move out of Azure, we will offer a full year of free cloud usage. As long as you don’t go back to Azure after that! Mail us on [email protected]. Offer is perpetually open!” he further added.
Bhavish Aggarwal also highlighted the steps taken by his ride-sharing service to promote genuine inclusivity and diversity. “On the other hand, the pronouns issue I wrote about is a woke political ideology of entitlement which doesn’t belong in India. I wouldn’t have waded into this debate but clearly Linkedin has presumed Indians need to have pronouns in our life, and that we can’t criticise it. They will bully us into agreeing with them or cancel us out. And if they can do this to me, I’m sure the average user stands no chance,” he concluded.
The Background of the Controversy
On 6th May, Ola co-founder and entrepreneur Bhavish Aggarwal slammed the Western woke culture and the invasion of ‘pronoun illness’ in India.
In a tweet, he talked about LinkedIn’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot and its reference to him with pronouns such as ‘they/ their.’ Bhavish Aggarwal then raised alarm about multinational companies indoctrinating unsuspecting Indians with ‘pronoun illness.’
He wrote, “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!”
Screenshot is from LinkedIns AI bot.
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) May 5, 2024
This “pronouns illness” is being perpetuated in India by MNCs without us Indians even realising it.
“(The) screenshot is from LinkedIn’s AI bot. This “pronouns illness” is being perpetuated in India by MNCs without us Indians even realising it,” the OLA co-founder cautioned.
He further emphasised, “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.”
“Better to send this illness back where it came from. Our culture has always had respect for all. No need for new pronouns,” Bhavish Aggarwal concluded.
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
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) May 5, 2024
Better to send this illness back where it came from. Our culture has always had respect for all. No need for new pronouns pic.twitter.com/lo3eLHDGpH
Netizens were amazed that a top Indian entrepreneur finally took a firm stand against the mass indoctrination of Indians in the name of inclusivity.
