An Indian startup founder has caused a lot of discussion online after he cancelled a job offer worth ₹22 lakh per year to a talented candidate. The candidate had impressed the team with their skills and ideas, but the founder took back the offer after he found hateful comments made by the candidate on LinkedIn, which targeted certain religious communities.

The founder, Mohammed Ahmed Bhati, who started the company Jobbie, shared the story on LinkedIn. He said the candidate had applied for the job after seeing Jobbie’s viral Reddit post about doing 450 interviews for 12,000 applicants but not hiring anyone. Bhati explained that the candidate stood out and even created his resume using Jobbie’s platform and suggested ways to make it better. However, after a final background check, they found the candidate’s rude and offensive comments online.

Bhati said, “We were so impressed that we were ready to offer a salary higher than our budget. But we found recent public comments that were disrespectful towards religious communities. No matter how skilled someone is, respect and basic decency matter more. Talent can get you a job, but values decide if you stay.” He also shared screenshots of the job offer and the rejection letter to show why they made this decision.

The rejection letter said, "As we mentioned before, we did a normal background check before giving you the offer. During this check, we found some recent public posts on LinkedIn where you made comments that could deeply hurt the religious feelings of some communities." This incident has received mixed reactions on social media. Some people supported the founder’s decision, while others thought it was too extreme.

Some users said taking back a job offer because of someone’s social media posts is an example of "cancel culture" and shows that the leader is immature. One person wrote, "Taking back an offer based on social media posts shows how cancelling culture can hurt a company when the wrong people are in charge. Posting about it here isn’t showing off your values — it just shows how insecure you are as a leader. Good luck finding good candidates." Another person asked, "Were the comments criticizing a religion or its practices, or were they just to insult someone? If they were criticisms, I don’t think that is a good reason to cancel an offer."