Panchkula: On 13 August, 30-year-old Karan Sangwan, a law teacher at edtech platform Unacademy, awoke to social media threats and trolling. Days later came another jolt — he was “sacked” by his now former employers, allegedly without giving him a chance to explain himself.
“I was shocked. My world had suddenly turned upside down. I’d lost a job, and was at the centre of attention,” Sangwan, who taught aspiring law students and those studying judicial services at Unacademy, told ThePrint.
The immediate trigger for the outrage was not hard to perceive.
On 12 August, he had allegedly received a call from his employers about a video he had posted that day. In that video, uploaded on his private YouTube channel Legal Pathshala, he had purportedly criticised three new criminal law bills introduced by the central government in the monsoon session of Parliament, which concluded earlier this month — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 — and asked his students to vote for “an educated person”.
The three proposed laws seek to replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and have been sent to a standing committee on home affairs for scrutiny.
What could have triggered Sangwan’s “termination” was that in the video he was seen wearing his black Unacademy T-Shirt.
The teacher told ThePrint that at his employers’ request, he took down the video the very same day. But by then, he says, the damage had been done — clips of it had been circulated on social media, along with the hashtag #BoycottUnacademy. ThePrint could still find the video on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Only in India can someone be fired for asking students to 'vote for the educated'! You might disagree with his opinion, but it's hardly a controversial stand that would warrant such a step! #UninstallUnacademy
Karan Sangwan video that started it all 👇🏻
pic.twitter.com/wlKypTh46A
— Cow Momma (@Cow__Momma) August 17, 2023
Sangwan claimed Unacademy suspended him on 13 August, before terminating his services on 17 August.
The same day, the edtech platform announced on social media that it was “forced to part ways” with Sangwan for alleged “breach of the code of conduct” on his part.
“Our learners are at the centre of everything we do,” co-founder Roman Sain said in a post on X on 17 August. This clarification came after the issue began to catch media attention. “The classroom is not the place to share personal opinions and views as they wrongly influence them. In the current situation, we are forced to part ways with Karan Sangwan as he was in breach of the Code of Conduct”.
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.
Our learners are at the centre of…
— Roman Saini (@RomanSaini) August 17, 2023
Meanwhile, Sangwan said he had to endure relentless trolling — even threats — both on Instagram and X.
Among his critics was singer Sonu Nigam, who thanked Unacademy for terminating his services.
Thank You @unacademy for terminating Karan Sangwan. he should have focused on putting more effort into the betterment of students instead of ranting.
A teacher must remember that his task is to teach and not to preach. Let democracy and the people of India decide their leaders. pic.twitter.com/lb4eLg1wT4
— Sonu Nigam (@SonuNigamSingh) August 17, 2023
Another social media user, while targeting Sangwan, compared Unacademy to a madrasa.
He is Karan Sangwan, an Law teacher from @unacademy faculty. He is urging his students not to vote for the current Govt (BJP) again.
Unacademy is nothing less than an Madarasa. This is not a teaching institue but a propaganda machinery against Govt. pic.twitter.com/FYW1POvkr6
— Sunny 😎 (@being_sunny1) August 13, 2023
“People are messaging me asking for my real name. They say I’m a Muslim using a Hindu name. Many are abusing me for offending them. It’s really frightening,” Sangwan told ThePrint, showing one text that congratulated him on losing his job for having issued a statement against “the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”.
“But where have I taken the name of any leader, politician or political party?” a bemused Sangwan asked, pushing his rimless glasses firmly up the bridge of his nose.
ThePrint reached Unacademy for its response via calls and email, but received no response till the time of publication of this report. The article will be updated once a response is received.
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The video and the subsequent row
First founded as a YouTube channel in 2015, Unacademy today boasts of 50 million users, according to its website, and calls itself “India’s largest learning app”.
It offers courses for all kinds of competitive exams — from the coveted Union Public Services Commission exams for civil services, law and joint entrance exam for engineering, to even Class 12 examinations — and is based on the subscription model that requires students to pay for the classes they take.
In his controversial video, Sangwan is purportedly heard claiming that the three new proposed criminal laws were nearly identical to the existing ones they were seeking to replace.
“Even I don’t know whether to laugh or cry because I also have a lot of bare acts, case laws, and notes that I had prepared,” Sangwan, a law graduate from Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla, purportedly told his students in the viral video clip. ‘It’s hard work for everyone. You’ve also got a job at hand. But keep in mind one thing. Next time, vote for someone who is well-educated so you don’t have to go through this [ordeal] again.”
Elect someone who is educated and “who understands things”, he can be heard saying in the purported video, adding, “Don’t elect someone who only knows changing names. Choose well.”
Soon, the row took a political turn, with opposition leaders like Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Rajya Sabha MP and Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) Priyanka Chaturvedi castigating the edtech company’s decision to fire him.
On 17 August, Kejriwal asked if asking for educated people to be voted into power was a crime, saying in a tweet: “Illiterate public representatives can never build the modern India of the 21st century”.
क्या पढ़े लिखे लोगों को वोट देने की अपील करना अपराध है? यदि कोई अनपढ़ है, व्यक्तिगत तौर पर मैं उसका सम्मान करता हूँ। लेकिन जनप्रतिनिधि अनपढ़ नहीं हो सकते। ये साइंस और टेक्नोलॉजी का ज़माना है। 21वीं सदी के आधुनिक भारत का निर्माण अनपढ़ जनप्रतिनिधि कभी नहीं कर सकते। https://t.co/YPX4OCoRoZ
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 17, 2023
Chaturvedi, meanwhile, wondered how his views counted as “biased opinion”.
“Doesn’t that opinion positively influence young minds? Shame if merely expressing this view gets you to take someone’s job, Unacademy,” she wrote on X.
How does saying vote for literate politicians a biased opinion? Doesn’t that opinion positively influence young minds? Shame if merely expressing this view gets you to take someone’s job, Unacademy.
PS: Don’t understand why everyone felt Karan Sangwan, the professor’s opinion on… https://t.co/bbexnYhiOb
— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) August 18, 2023
Sangwan says he still stands by what he said. “I have read the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill 2023 (the law that seeks to replace the Indian Evidence Act). It’s almost the same (as the Indian Evidence Act) with minor changes,” he told ThePrint, but conceded he had yet to thoroughly go through the other two laws.
According to his profile on Unacademy, Sangwan has 15,000 student followers. On Saturday, he claimed his profile was taken down, although ThePrint could still access it.
Interestingly, the professor wasn’t always with Unacademy. In 2013, he launched his YouTube channel Legal Pathshala. By 2018, the channel began gaining popularity online, with students even beginning to pay for online classes, he says.
It was his channel’s growing presence that Sangwan says caught the attention of Unacademy and in 2021, he got an email asking if he could collaborate with them.
‘Didn’t care about my explanation’
Having grown up in a military family, being on the move was always a part of Sangwan’s life, he recalls. As a result, he’s lived in various states — including Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and West Bengal.
Through it all, Sangwan claims he saw education as a powerful tool for change. But for him, it didn’t merely stand for degrees. “Education is about social upbringing, morality and ethics,” said the teacher, who counts B.R. Ambedkar among his inspirations.
As soon as news of his dismissal spread, messages began pouring in, not only from his students but also from their parents, he says. One of the messages, which he showed to ThePrint, read: “Don’t leave, sir. You didn’t say anything wrong. I took an Unacademy subscription and paid extra only to be taught by you”.
A student described to ThePrint how Sangwan would try to engage with them — ‘How’s the Josh’, he would ask his unseen audience, said the student, borrowing a famous line from the 2016 movie Uri: The Surgical Strike.
“He would engage us thoroughly and ensure that we understood what he taught. Often my father, who is also a lawyer, would listen in on his lessons and later, appreciate his teaching skills and knowledge,” a student who didn’t want to be named told ThePrint.
But not everyone agrees with what he said in the purported video.
An educator from the Edtech platform StudyIQ Education believes Sangwan should have chosen his words more carefully. StudyIQ Education is an online learning platform to provide training for competitive government exams such as UPSC and judicial services.
“We need to maintain neutrality,” said the educator who didn’t want to be named. “There’s a difference between a university and a platform which is teaching for competitive examinations. We need to have a balance and careful consideration.”
However, Sangwan maintains that he doesn’t regret what he said.
“Unacademy sent me an email. They didn’t care to hear my explanation. They saw something on social media that was affecting their brand and they mailed me a termination letter. I tried speaking to the management but the back office didn’t connect the call. I felt humiliated,” he alleged.
The incident also exposed to him the dark side of the internet, he claimed. “For the longest time, I had witnessed the good side of the internet that allowed me to teach students, impart knowledge and reach the masses. Now, I am witnessing something that has caused more damage than I could’ve ever imagined,” he said.
Still, he plans to keep teaching his students, using his Youtube Channel Legal Pathshala — which now goes by the name Karan Sangwan — to do so.
“My students paid to study law at Unacademy but now that I’ve been sacked. I’ll teach these students free of cost on my YouTube channel. I can’t stake their future, even if mine remains in the realm of uncertainty,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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