Startup CEO’s ‘open letter ‘after his post on intern rejecting Rs 10K offer gets slammed with “Zamindaari nahi jaayegi…” and more – Times of India

A conversation started on social media after a startup CEO posted about an intern rejecting a Rs 10,000 monthly stipend. The CEO’s subsequent open letter, attempting to defend the offer, has only fueled the debate around fair compensation for interns in India, particularly those from Tier-1 colleges.

A rejected offer

The controversy began when Vinayak Sarawagi a startup CEO publicly shared his experience of an intern candidate declining a Rs 10,000 monthly stipend offer. He expressed frustration, questioning the intern’s expectations and work ethic.

“Zamindari Nahi Jaayegi…” social media reacts

The CEO’s post backfired, triggering a wave of criticism online. Many users slammed the offer as exploitative, one user named Ravi Handa commented “Zamindari Nahi Jaayegi…”, highlighting the inadequacy of the stipend in covering basic living expenses in major cities.

The CEO’s defense: An open letter

In an attempt to address the criticism, the CEO released an open letter outlining his rationale. He emphasized the learning experience offered by the internship and implied that financial compensation shouldn’t be the primary motivation.
“Hello sir, huge respect for you. But since you posted here without discussing it with me, I thought I would post here. Don’t know how to do long form replies here, so posting the note here,” posted Sarawagi.

Read the complete post here

Backdrop:

I recently started my own company, and since I am building an open source framework, I am using my savings to pay the interns. I know the stipend is low, hence I try to offer other comforts like flexible hours. There are many other people paying much more money than I AM. So, calling me a Zamindar without knowing it all is not cool

1. The candidate connected with me after I dropped a message on the group.

2. I had a call with the candidate where I told him the expectation, the job had 10K monthly stipend, remote, flexible hours (since the candidate attends college during days)

3. He was supposed to get back to me with confirmation if he will be appearing for the first round or not, and then he messaged me this.

4. Everyone has their expectations, many candidates have replied to me in more blunt manner “this is peanuts”, “10k se kya hogo”. Everyone has a right to lead a good life and being financially well-off. People calling it exploitations need to know what kind of work we do without even ever working with me.

You got offended because I was paying less to the tier 1 student and couldn’t take no for an answer, but what about those replies where people called tier-2/3 students slaves. I am myself from tier-2 college.

PS: The candidate is not wrong here, and I wish him the best of luck! I just posted this screenshot because I could see that the “Tier 1” debate is still not over yet.

Hope this helps give some clarity.