In what can only be considered a gross insult towards India, Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, refused to appear before an Indian Parliamentary Committee headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur. Thakur said, “we had summoned the global CEO, he did not appear but sent junior executives.” Initially, the Twitter CEO and other top officials refused outright to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on IT. Twitter’s attitude reeked of absolute arrogance and disrespect towards India. However, Twitter did try covering it up and sent the Twitter India Director of Policy, Mahima Kaul to represent the social networking website.
However, this has only displayed the arrogance of Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey and the fact that he has no respect for India. It must be kept in mind that the Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg had appeared before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee in September last year. It seems that Jack Dorsey does not consider India important enough and that is why he defied India in the first place. However, the Parliamentary Panel has stood its ground and has decided to summon Dorsey along with other top Twitter officials before it on February 25. The Committee has also decided to summon other social networking platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp in connection with the issue of “Safeguarding Citizens Rights on Social/Online News Media Platforms”.
As per sources the Parliamentary Committee did not call Twitter India officials before it. Mahima Kaul, Twitter India Director of Policy and Payal Kamat, a Twitter India official, were spotted waiting outside the venue. As per reports, the Parliamentary Panel chairman Anurag Thakur stated that company officials in India were not authorised to take enforcement decisions. This is a legitimate argument and there was no sense in holding deliberations with those officials who couldn’t have made much of a difference. It has been reported that the members of the Committee agreed that it was unacceptable that the Twitter CEO could not oblige the Parliament.
What is particularly disturbing is the fact that the team leader of Twitter India that was sent by the social media platform to the Parliamentary Panel on IT is six months pregnant and was on maternity leave. It is utterly shameful that the Twitter CEO, Jock Dorsey got her to represent Twitter before the Panel. It is a gross violation of human rights to which a woman is entitled. And the Ministry of Women and Child Development must not let Twitter go scot-free for this grave and shameful violation of such a crucial right of women employees. While the left liberal ecosystem is trying hard to paint the Parliamentary Committee in bad light for keeping her waiting, it is the Twitter CEO and other senior officials who must be blamed for this.
Shame on @TwitterIndia for recalling a six months pregnant woman from her leave to attend the parliamentary committee hearing. Is this how @Twitter intends to make it a ‘safe place for women’? Who cancelled her leave? https://t.co/uyFoauXHLE
— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) February 12, 2019
Would Jack have sent a pregnant white women to face Senate committee in usa ? What kind of sweatshop op he is running in India to cancel maternity leaves of women and force them to work ? @Manekagandhibjp @MinistryWCD you need to take su moto cognizance of this and investigate. https://t.co/ZPRAJgSwNF
— mayurwrites (@freentglty) February 12, 2019
Jack was summoned. Instead, the coward sent his six months pregnant team leader. https://t.co/dptn7fxoYA
— Ajit Datta (@ajitdatta) February 12, 2019
At this point, one cannot help but wonder if Dorsey would have dared to send a female employee on maternity leave for official duty if a US Parliamentary Panel was involved. This goes on to show the double standards of Jack Dorsey. It was rather dastardly on his part to evade appearing before the Parliamentary Panel and sending Mahima Kaul who was on maternity leave instead.
It is important to mention here that this shows how Twitter treats India like a third world country where it can exploit its employees openly and blatantly violate the rights of its female employees. This ought to be taken seriously as it exposes the terribly unsafe working environment for women in the said company. If a top official can be exploited in such a blatant manner, it is difficult to imagine the plight of those serving at lower levels.
