A video tweet of RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy about Sridhar Vembu who founded Zoho corporation celebrating Pongal in his native village created huge controversy among he users of the micro blogging social media site. Gurumurthy said that Sridhar Vembu is celebrating Pongal in his farm with “very ordinary” people and it made the online users to raise so many questions. Clarifying to the outrage that got erupted due to his tweet, Gurumurthy said that people who are living in village are “ordinary” people.

Sridhar Vembu who hails from a Tamil family of farmers from a village in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, founded Zoho corporation and became the 59th richest Indian in the world with a net worth of US$2.5 billion, as of 2020. In the year 2021, he was awarded India’s fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1989, Sridhar Vembu earned his MS and PhD degrees from Princeton University in New Jersey. He started his career as a wireless engineer at a company named Qualcomm in San Diego, California.

Vembu, along with his brothers, founded a software development house named AdvantNet in the year 1996 and renamed it as Zoho corporation in the year 2009. As of 2020, he held an 88 percent stake in the company. Forbes estimated his net worth at USD $2.44 billion.

On Wednesday, S. Gurumurthy, an RSS ideologue came up with a video of Sridhar celebrating Pongal in his farm and wrote “Sridhar founder and soul of Zoho corporation celebrating Pongal in his farm with very ordinary people” as his caption. Check out the tweet he shared below :

Sridhar founder and soul of Zoho corporation celebrating Pongal in his farm with very ordnary people. pic.twitter.com/55Yg6VOikT

— S Gurumurthy (@sgurumurthy) January 12, 2022

The tweet created huge outrage among a users of Twitter who started questioning Gurumurthy over the term “ordinary” he used in his tweet. “Very ordinary people??? What kind of a term is that?” asked political analyst Sumanth Raman whereas many others asked the tweet author to treat everyone equally.

Check out some of the reactions below :

Very ordinary people ஆம். சீவி சிங்காரிச்சு செருப்பால அடிக்கிறதுன்னு இதத்தான் சொல்வாங்க. அவங்களை விட ஆயிரம் மடங்கு சொத்து வச்சிரு, ஆயிரம் மடங்கு அறிவாயிரு. ஆனா மனித குல வரலாற்றில் உன்னை மிஞ்சி எத்தனையோ பேர் இருப்பார்கள். வருவார்கள். சக மனிதனுக்கு தீங்கிழைக்காத யாரும் சமமே. https://t.co/AUVv60Ckb4

— படப்பொட்டி (@teakkadai1) January 12, 2022

அவங்க ordinary peopleனா இவரு யாரு மின்னல் முரளியா? https://t.co/OO5ji2em3h

— Arun Pandiyan (@ArunPandiyanMJ) January 12, 2022

Very ordinary people??? What kind of a term is that? 😡😡 https://t.co/yPH4Iliq64

— Sumanth Raman (@sumanthraman) January 12, 2022

Rough translation of this tweet :
‘Avar range ku paathingala? Ivaaaloda lam Pongal celebrate pandraru. Very down to earth person. He treats everybody equally, paarungoo.’ https://t.co/p6umExE4Vb

— மீனா. (@PeruVaikala6) January 12, 2022

Some imbeciles can’t even pronounce the word “Ordinary” correctly and yet have the gall and guts to call someone by the same term as if he has jumped from Donkey’s ass.

The audacity and idiocy the Khyber and Bolan stocks have is unparalleled. https://t.co/KBGT6JN2mM

— PanneerSelvam (a)Uma (@UMA_1510) January 12, 2022

“We told you all, the sacred thread wearing brahmins are Nazis & fascists, now hear from this brahmin that they aren’t ordinary people”

Jai Bhim! Vazhga Periyaar! https://t.co/65cZqh8gHM pic.twitter.com/ZyagpMiOI8

— Thaiyaan (@thaiyaan) January 12, 2022

Oh , “very ordnary people” ??

ஏன் பெரியார் இன்றும் தேவை ! 👇🏻 https://t.co/qDqGaXruoS

— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) January 12, 2022

I guess this guy tried to say someone as rich as Sridhar is celebrating Pongal with common people. By the way, that is still discrimination. May be not caste based, but money based discrimination to just call others as very ordinary people. People are people! Don’t discriminate. https://t.co/a4LMUjRl7d

— Srinath (@srinath4m) January 12, 2022

Ordinary people , special people. Idhu enna dosai ah naaye. https://t.co/jYB2GWeOo7

— Kavi (@blurt2kc) January 12, 2022

It is always better to be “ordnary” person than being a regressive conservative person. https://t.co/QFkEYN6RtA

— Mugilan Chandrakumar (@Mugilan__C) January 12, 2022

Just coz you want to praise someone doesn’t mean that you have to degrade others.. Very ordinary people like them are providing the food to the world, no money can solve that… https://t.co/Za2tks0Aw7

— 👽 Anakin Skywalker 👽 (@Java1Seven) January 12, 2022

A person who lives in the US for a couple of decades becomes ‘special person’ & the rest are ‘ordinary people’. Fundamentally their ideology has many many flaws starting with a sense of entitlement & invincibility https://t.co/P200dNyzx7

— Harsaran Singh |ਹਰਸਰਨ ਸਿੰਘ (@Harsarans) January 13, 2022

Extraordinary people vs ordinary people pic.twitter.com/NeZTdzTY5t

— Ravishankar G🇮🇳 (@ravishankarg97) January 12, 2022

Reacting to the hudreds of comments opposing his tweet, Gurumurthy replied writing “Some ask a strange question who is ordinary people. Being from a village I always felt a villager is only ordinary. Villagers who come to chennai think they are superior to their own villagers. Sridhar Vembu who was in US for 20 years is in village today with ordinary people”  

Some ask a strange question who is ordinary people. Being from a village I always felt a villager is only ordinary. Villagers who come to chennai think they are superior to their own villagers. Sridhar Vembu who was in US for 20 years is in village today with ordinary people.

— S Gurumurthy (@sgurumurthy) January 12, 2022

It is notable that Sridhar Vembu became a subject to criticism in the year 2020 after attending and endorsing a high-profile event organised by RSS. The Zoho founder defended his participation by saying that it is a matter of his personal choice, according to reports.