Indian tech company fires woman after former employee says she made anti-gay remarks at work
Left: India decriminalises gay sex. (Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty) Right: Gaurav
A Mumbai tech company has fired a member of staff after a former employee sent her an email outlining all of the derogatory things she said about gay people while he worked there.
Gaurav Probir Pramanik said he had vowed to send her an email on the day that gay sex was decriminalised in India, as he wanted to call her behaviour out.
Twitter (@gauravpramanik)
After gay sex was decriminalised earlier this month, he sent the email, and went on to post images of it on Twitter.
In the email, he alleges that the employee made a number of derogatory remarks about gay people and about Muslims while he worked there.
Ironically, the woman at the centre of the allegations also served as the company’s Diversity and Inclusivity Chief.
In the email, he said he had never heard “a leader, albeit a Global Head of a department of a global company like Tech Mahindra speak so callously and in such a bigoted way.”
“There were times you made mocking judgements on me about how you thought I was effeminate and that it affected my work,” he added.
“Pardon me but what affected my work was how I was treated by my leaders.”
He goes on to say that the email is not intended to “change” her opinions about LGBT+ people, or Muslims, but to call her out.
“You, Mrs Richa Gautam, are a bigot, you are vile, vitriolic and hateful… Luckily enough for us, space for the likes of you is diminishing and it will soon disappear.”
The images of his email went on to receive over 1,000 likes and retweets, and the office of the Corporate Ombudsman at Tech Mahindra reached out to him to find out more.
The organisation tweeted yesterday that, after an investigation, “the concerned employee has been separated from the employment of the company with immediate effect.
The Supreme Court’s decision was unanimous (INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty)
“At Tech Mahindra, we believe in diversity and inclusion and condemn discrimination of any kind in the workplace,” they added.
Gaurav has since said that he feels “vindicated” by the decision.
“Thank you to all those who’ve been steadfastly supporting me. I have nothing but appreciation for all your support and words of encouragement,” he said in a Twitter post.
Gaurav sent the email after a landmark decision by India’s Supreme Court earlier this month resulted in gay sex being decriminalised.
The five judges of the Supreme Court were unanimous in their decision to overturn the ban, which had been in place since India was a British colony.
