Zoho CEO divides internet: Living in Bengaluru and not learning Kannada disrespectful

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu ignited a fiery debate on social media by urging people who have made Bengaluru their home to learn Kannada, as not doing so is “disrespectful”.

His comments followed an X post featuring two men wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Hindi National Language” and captioned "Perfect T-shirt for Bangalore trip".

The tweet, which was later deleted, touched off a controversy. Journalist Chandra R Srikanth replied to the post, pointing out the irony of people readily learning European languages while travelling abroad, but reluctant to pick up local languages back home.