BENGALURU: A Bengaluru-based entrepreneur drew flak on social media after posting about the introduction of a discriminatory hiring policy by his company. Karthik SG, the founder of A1 Sports World, took to X to declare that he would not hire any male candidates from four North Indian states – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Karthik’s post says that the company’s decisionmakers have “made it very clear after lengthy discussion and quarrel” that they would be implementing the policy. The founder also went on to justify himself by saying, “We do have one Rajasthani already working for us. She has 100% supposed (supported) this (sic).”
After receiving adverse responses to the post, Karthik posted an explanation stating that the “mess” that led to the decision started a couple of weeks ago when an employee from one of the four states was fired, after multiple warnings about his “abusive” conduct towards female employees of the company and allegedly having been caught sexually assaulting one of his female co-workers.
“We work with young people. Do you think men with such a mindset even deserve an opportunity?” the post continued. Karthik also stated that almost 85–90% of adverse responses to his post originated from users based in Bihar. “We have 32 employees, of which 14 are female – 20 of them come from other states with 12 from non-south states. We have people from all religious faiths, such as Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Buddhism,” the post added.