Unacademy Controversy: Drawing The Line On Political Debates At Startup Workplaces?

A recent incident at Unacademy, where the edtech giant sacked a teacher for voicing a political opinion during an online class, has again raised the question of employees’ rights to openly discuss political issues at the workplace.

It’s also brought up some debate about whether Indian startups are ready for politics at the workplace even as they enter the mainstream ahead of the 2024 General Elections.

Earlier this week, Unacademy sacked judicial services tutor Karan Sangwan, days after his video went viral on social media. During his class, Sangwan is seen urging students to vote for educated candidates, which brought up talk about political bias.

In response to the video, Unacademy cofounder Roman Saini said, “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.”

Sangwan was dismissed for seemingly being in breach of the Code of Conduct, the cofounder said. He added that the classroom is not “a place to share personal opinions and views as they can wrongly influence them.”

The decision, however, sparked a controversy as many questioned whether Unacademy could take such a step for a teacher who simply urged students to vote for educated candidates. Many X (formerly Twitter) users called for boycotting Unacademy, with ‘UninstallUnacademy’ trending on the site.

Even Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi condemned Unacademy’s stance on the issue.

Startups In Political Crossfire

Indian startups have been seen historically fostering an open culture but it seems they are not certain yet how to deal with heated controversies about political and social issues. We have seen similar cases in the case of Zomato and other companies in the recent past.

Back in 2021, foodtech Zomato landed in a controversy after one of its employees told a customer, during a grievance redressal conversation, that everyone should know Hindi as it is the national language. The exchange triggered a controversy and many condemned the company for imposing the language on customers.

As an immediate reaction, Zomato issued a public apology and informed the customer that it “terminated the agent for their negligence towards our diverse culture”.

However, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal later informed that the employee in question was being reinstated and added that call centre agents are “not experts on languages and regional sentiments”. While many lauded Goyal for supporting the employee in crisis, many raised questions about the startup’s guidelines on sensitive issues.

In today’s digital age, social media has become a major communication channel for startups and their customers. Hence, it has become more important for them to have a clear strategy to deal with controversies but defending employee rights as well.

Was Unacademy Right To Sack Karan Sangwan?

The freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right guaranteed to all citizens under the constitution of India under article 19 (1) (A). The exercise of this right is subservient to “reasonable restrictions” being imposed under article 19(2) of the Constitution of India.

While rule 5 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 deals with the involvement of a government employee in politics and elections, there is no definitive rule for private sector employees in this regard. However, private entities can put clauses in employee agreements to restrain employees from making sensitive political comments.

According to a legal expert, not willing to be named, the termination of Unacademy teacher is illegal as he did not mention any political party, politician or any individual in his comment which was mostly generic. However, as of yet, there’s no sign of any legal action being taken against the company.

Besides India, this issue remains unsolved for global startups and corporates as well. For example, Google updated its employee guidelines in 2021 to caution against unnecessary political debate and improper disclosure of company information which sparked controversies as well.

Other companies such as Basecamp and Coinbase also tried to ban political discussions at work which resulted in a loss of number of employees.

Given that Indian startups have become part of the mainstream consciousness and public debates, startups will definitely need to be more agile when it comes to navigating such challenges in the future.

Technology has become a battleground for political stakes as we have seen in the past couple of election cycles, and with the 2024 General Elections on the horizon, startups are increasingly likely to see themselves being dragged into political debates.