Roman Saini added that they were "forced to part ways" with the tutor. (File)
Ed-tech platform Unacademy has defended its decision to lay off one of its tutors after he urged students not to vote for "uneducated candidates" in the next elections.
Roman Saini, the co-founder of the company, said Karan Sangwan was fired for being in "breach of Code of Conduct" as the classroom was "not a place to share personal opinions."
"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," he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mr Saini added that they were "forced to part ways" with the tutor. "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," his post read.
In an online lecture, Karan Sangwan, without naming anyone in particular, encouraged his students not to put uneducated people in positions of power.
The termination has been criticised on social media with thousands of users claiming to have uninstalled the Unacademy app with #UninstallUnacademy also trending on X.
The move was also criticised by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who questioned the reasoning behind Unacademy's decision. "Is it a crime to appeal to educated people to vote? 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," he said.
In a new video posted on his Youtube channel, the tutor said he will share the details about the incident on his YouTube channel tomorrow.
"Over the past few days, a video has been going viral due to which I am in controversy and because of that controversy my students who are preparing for judicial services examinations are facing a lot of consequences. Along with them, I have to also face consequences," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)