Twitter Spat Breaks Out Between Mazumdar-Shaw, Mohandas Pai Over Godrej’s ‘Hate Crime’ Comment

A spat broke out on Twitter between Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Mohandas Pai over Adi Godrej’s comment that rising intolerance, hate crimes and moral policing can “seriously damage” India’s economic growth.

Mazumdar-Shaw, founder and chairperson of Biocon Ltd., retweeted a news report and called Godrej group head’s comment “well-spoken”. Pai, former chief financial officer of Infosys Ltd. who now runs a venture fund, took exception. He tweeted that she is falling into the “trap of fake narrative” and advised her to instead rely on India’s GDP growth track record.

Pai also slammed NDTV and India Today for presenting a “one-sided narrative” by sharing Godrej’s comment. To be sure, the two news portals had published a Press Trust of India report that was also carried by other websites and newspapers.

NDTV and India Today have yet to respond to BloombergQuint’s queries.

Godrej, addressing a gathering to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his alma mater St Xavier’s College in Mumbai, had congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for presenting a “grand vision” to build a new India and nearly double the economy to a $5 trillion. But he also said that it’s not all a rosy picture now. “One must not lose sight of the massive impoverishedness plaguing our nation which can seriously damage the pace of growth going forward and prevent us from realising our potential.”

Pai, however, tweeted that business leaders should not create “unnecessary negativism” by “abusing India”, to which Mazumdar-Shaw replied that “we should not be in denial” and that Pai was being “unfair”.

Mazumdar-Shaw, however, admonished a Twitter user saying no one should “abusive” language for Pai who has done a lot for the “economic progress of India”. Pai advised her to ignore them.