Software and CRM company Zoho Corp’s co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu found himself in the middle of a Twitter storm after he tweeted about his attending a software event called Resurgent Bharath being organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Chennai on 2 February.
The event also listed Rama S Ramachandran, Accenture’s MD and Head of Operations Chennai as its guest of honour and Vembu was to be the chief guest. The event was to be attended by software professionals.
After the event invite went viral, a flurry of tweets questioned why these software professionals were part of this event. Popular sentiment is not in favour of the government at the moment because of the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the recent attacks at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Milia Islamia. The right-wing RSS is seen as the backbone of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ramachandran tweeted later that he had nothing to do with the event.
However, Vembu’s reply on Twitter created a bigger controversy drawing criticism from Twitter users.
Vembu replied: "I don’t decide my views based on Twitter attacks. If you dislike which events I attend, please do what your conscience dictates and I will do what mine dictates. We earn our daily bread due to our work and we will continue to do quality work. I won't be responding to attacks."
In response to Vembu’s stand, several Twitter users called for a boycott of Zoho and its products, with the hashtag #boycottzoho trending. Zoho does a lot of business with the middle-east countries as well.
Users claiming to be loyal customers of Zoho tweeted looking to switch brands in response to Vembu’s stand.
However, Vembu’s tweet also found support for taking a stand on the issue.
While Ramachandran distanced himself and Accenture from being drawn into the controversy, Vembu’s stand has clearly split the IT fraternity in two – those who support his stand and those who don’t.
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