Ed-Tech firm Unacademy reels under major backlash after firing tutor who advocated voting for educated leaders

Sangwan was fired for asking students to reject those who knows only to rename; #UninstallUnacademy trends on social media, over 1 lakh people uninstalled app within 24 hours.

ByBellie Thomas

Published Aug 18, 2023 | 6:37 PM ⚊UpdatedAug 19, 2023 | 1:28 AM

Karan Sangwan - the sacked teaching staff from Unacademy

Karan Sangwan - the sacked teaching staff from Unacademy

Bengaluru-headquartered Ed-Tech firm Unacademy came under heavy fire on Friday, 18 August, after it sacked one of its faculty members for telling students during an online session to vote for “educated” leaders and not those who focus “only on changing names”.

Karan Sangwan, holding an LLM in Criminal Law, had been a faculty member of Unacademy’s legal studies faculty since February 2020. He also has a YouTube channel, Legal Pathashala, with over 45,000 subscribers.

Sangwan commented, apparently referring to the Union government’s bid to rename the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and Indian Evidence Act as the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya, and Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, respectively.

He was riled because all the notes and case studies he had prepared over the years would become worthless once Parliament ratified the three Bills Union Home Minister Amit Shah had presented on 11 August.

Meanwhile, Sangwan said in a short video on Friday that he would be coming live on his YouTube channel around 8 pm on Saturday, 19 August, to explain not only his ordeal but also of his students who have been dragged into the controversy.

Also read: Karnataka legal, police fraternity split over proposed new Bills

What did Sangwan say?

“Don’t forget when you vote next time. Vote for someone well-educated, so that you don’t have to go through this (ordeal) again. Elect someone who is educated and understands things. Don’t elect someone who knows only to change names. Make your decision properly,” the tutor told his students during an online session.

A video of the session went viral on X (formerly Twitter), inviting both bouquets and brickbats.

Sangwan was also heard saying he did not know whether to laugh or cry because he had prepared Bare Acts, case studies, and notes the hard way.

Soon after the video went viral, netizens accused Sangwan of pushing a political agenda during the online classes. A few even alleged that the Unacademy platform was anti-Modi.

Meanwhile, Unacademy fired Sangwan on Wednesday, 16 August, stating that the classroom was not a place to share personal opinions and views.

The Unacademy co-founder Roman Saini said in a tweet that the online education platform was forced to part ways with the educator, Karan Sangwan, for a “breach of Code of Conduct”.

Also read: PM Modi reignites renaming debate with Bhagyanagar remark

Unacademy’s version

“We are an education platform that is deeply committed to imparting quality education. To do this we have in place a strict Code of Conduct for all our educators with the intention of ensuring that our learners have access to unbiased knowledge. Our learners are at the centre of everything we do. The classroom is not a place to share personal opinions and views as they can wrongly influence them. In the current situation, we were forced to part ways with Karan Sangwan as he was in breach of the Code of Conduct,” Saini said on X.

Also read: Renaming Rajpath as Kartavya Path was pure politics: Tharoor

Support pours in for Sangwan

As soon as the news of Sangwan’s firing spread on social media, several prominent personalities, including politicians, came out in support of the teacher.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal — who has in the past questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational qualifications — asked if it was a crime to ask people to vote for educated individuals.

“Is it a crime to appeal to vote for educated people? If someone is illiterate, personally I respect him. But people’s representatives cannot be illiterate. This is the era of science and technology. Illiterate public representatives can never build the modern India of the 21st century,” Kejriwal said on X.

Trinamool Congress MP from Krishnanagar, West Bengal, Mahua Moitra, also came out in support of the teacher.

“Unacademy educator Karan Sangwan has been sacked from his job today. Last week he called out “Not to vote for politicians who are not educated”. This statement has hurt the BJP as they feel this statement was directed at PM Modi. UNACADEMY was under pressure from BJP leaders to sack Karan Sangwan and they succumbed to this pressure. Shame on UNACADEMY. I stand with #KaranSangwan, #UninstallUnacademy,” she tweeted.

A parody X handle, Rofl Gandhi 2.0, with over 8.47 lakh followers replied to Saini. “Roman Ji, opinions & debates are the essential part of learning and that too in the legal education field. Karan Sangwan only advocated for educated leadership. You are earning millions just because of that very education. Your move (sacking the teacher) is cowardly & selfish.”

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate came down heavily on the Unacademy founders, saying,  “Sad to see such spineless and weak people run an education platform.”

Meanwhile, the Unacademy app witnessed a breakout stage on the Google trends Uninstaller database. An app goes into the breakout stage when more than 1,00,000 uninstalls are recorded within 24 hours.

More than one lakh users uninstalled the Unacademy app after an online campaign #UninstallUnacademy started trending on social media.

“Breaking: Unacademy app is now in the breakout stage in the Google trends Uninstaller database. An app goes into this stage when more than 100,000 uninstalls are recorded within 24 hours. Unacademy is suffering for siding with the dictators. #UninstallUnacademy,” a netizen Roshan Rai tweeted.

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