Unacademy teacher asked students to vote for educated leaders, and all hell broke loose

Online education platform Unacademy teacher Karan Sangwan perhaps never thought in his wildest dreams that his comments would lead to a massive outburst on social media.

What happened

The LLM Criminal Laws tutor, during one of his sessions with the students, spoke to them about who to vote for.

• Sangwan asked students to never vote for illiterate politicians. “Aise insaan ko chune jo padha likha ho, jo samajh sake cheezon ko. Sirf aise insan ko na chune jinko sirf naam badalna aata ho, naam change karna aata ho (Elect someone who is educated, who understands things. Don’t elect someone who can only change names). Make your decision properly.”

His comments seemed directed towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments, who have changed names of states and places in recent times. Sangwan’s comments certainly didn’t go down well with the supporters of the BJP, and they started a trend against Unacademy.

Why the comment 

Sangwan was apparently discussing the latest Bill tabled in Lok Sabha by the BJP-led Union government to replace the British era IPC, CrPC and the Indian evidence act. He lamented that all the notes he had prepared on criminal laws have now become worthless.

He started by saying, “Lekin ek cheez yaad rakhna, agli baar jab apna vote do toh kisi padhe likhe insaan ko vote dena. Next time yaad rakhiyega. Aise insaan ko chuniyega jo cheezon ko samjhe (Remember this: the next time you vote, choose an educated person, the one who understands things. Don’t go for ones who only know how to change names.)

Backlash and support on social media

On social media platform X (formerly Twitter), many  people have lashed out at Sangwan for his take. Here are a few reactions:

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However, there was also a group of people who supported Sangwan for his views. Here are few reactions in support of Sangwan:

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Unacademy has yet to respond to the controversy.