Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella Criticized by Hindu Extremists

"I think what is happening (in India about immigrants) is sad... It's just bad…" Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft told reporters in New York.

"And even a story like mine being possible in a country like this (America) — I think, if anything, I would love to see a Bangladeshi immigrant who comes to India and creates the next unicorn in India or becomes the CEO of Infosys. That should be the aspiration. If I had to sort of mirror what happened to me in the US, I hope that’s what happens in India,” Nadella said.

Nadella made these comments January 13, 2020, in response to a question by Ben Smith editor of Buzzfeed, at a Microsoft event with journalists in New York. Smith asked Nadella if he had a “…view on the citizenship act in India…”

Nadella’s remarks came amid protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which discriminates against Muslims who number over 200 million in India. Buzzfeed reported that twenty-four people have died in India since December in incidents of police violence on protesters. Narendra Modi, India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister, and his Bharatiya Janata Party have been accused of turning India — the world’s largest democracy — into an authoritarian state, Buzzfeed added.

Indian American billionaire and major technology venture capitalist Vinod Khosla agreed with Nadella. He said, “I strongly believe India should be a secular country,” according to Bloomberg.

Nadella added that he was proud of his multi-cultural Indian heritage: “I’m very proud of where I get my heritage, culturally in that place, and I grew up in a city, Hyderabad. I always felt it was a great place to grow up. We celebrated Eid, we celebrated Christmas, Diwali — all three festivals that are big for us,” he said.

Nadella is the first chief executive of a major tech company to criticize India’s new law, notes Buzzfeed. Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon and other major American companies, with big operations in India, did not answer Buzzfeed’s request for comments on the new Indian citizenship law. Smith’s tweets of Nadella’s reply has been over 26,000 likes and has been re-tweeted over 12,000 times.

Nadella’s comments were attacked by Hindu extremists and Modi supporters. Mohandas Pai, whose family runs the Manipal schools and other businesses, tweeted: @satyanadella⁩ has fallen into the political trap in India because of his confused replies! ⁦@Microsoft⁩ Board should advice CEO to keep away from politics of others!”

Another critic, using the Twitter handle Hindu American tweeted, “This interview shows that Satya has no idea what he is talking about. He has not even done 1 minute of research to find out what the law is.” Another wrote on Twitter, “Bhakts - how he can say that, let me break my house “ Windows” to tech him a lesson.”