Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal calls non-binary gender pronouns 'western illness'; draws online flak

Bhavish Aggarwal, the co-founder and CEO of Ola Cabs, has kicked up a controversy regarding non-binary gender pronouns after he termed them a "western illness". The 38-year-old Indian entrepreneur is now facing backlash on X (formerly Twitter) with netizens labelling him 'homophobic' and 'conservative'.

It all started when Aggarwal shared a screenshot on his X account of the LinkedIn AI bot referring to him as 'they/them', in reply to his question "Who is Bhavish Aggarwal?"

Seemingly disappointed by the bot's reply, Aggarwal took to X and 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!"

He further blamed the MNCs for perpetuating this 'pronouns illness' without the Indians even realising it.

Bhavish did not stop here and made another post with the same screenshot and wrote, "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."

The CEO's post irked the netizens and they slammed him for being 'prejudiced against the LGBTQ+ community.' While one of the users asked him, "Which school did you attend, Bhavish?", another wrote, "Respecting pronouns is a basic act of decency, not an illness. Using someone's correct pronouns is the bare minimum, to respect LGBTQ+ folks."

Standup comedian and lyricist Varun Grover also commented on Bhavish's post and wrote, "You can change your bio to 'Stuck in the past at Ola.'"

Taking a jibe at the entrepreneur's take that gender pronouns are a western construct, an X user wrote, "But sir your whole business model relies on making a desi version of a western startup (Uber)."

What are gender pronouns?

For the unfamiliar, gender pronouns like “he/him/his,” “she/her/hers,” and “they/them/theirs,” are the set of pronouns that an individual uses to reflect that person's own gender identity. While “he/him/his,” and “she/her/hers” are conventionally used pronouns for binary people, “they/them/theirs,” are often used by people who do not exclusively identify as male or female or who prefer not to specify their gender identity.