Mumbai Founder Revokes Job Offer Over Candidate's 'Derogatory' Religious Comments; Says 'No Matter How...'

A Mumbai-based startup founder has sparked debate on social media after cancelling a job offer over the candidate’s alleged derogatory comments targeting religious communities.

Mohammed Ahmed Bhati, the founder of hiring platform Jobbie, announced the decision on LinkedIn. In a post, he said that while the candidate had impressed the team during interviews and was even offered a salary higher than their initial budget, the offer was ultimately withdrawn after a background check revealed concerning behaviour.

"Cancelled the offer letter based on derogatory comments made on some LinkedIn posts," Bhati wrote.

"After our viral post on Reddit regarding 12000 hires and 450 Interviews, none selected, this candidate reached out to us and applied, to further impress us even created his resume with Jobbie and highlighted steps to improve the platform."

Bhati added that despite being ready to go beyond their budget, they couldn't ignore the public posts made by the applicant.

"During the final background check, we found recent public comments that were derogatory towards religious communities," the post continued.

"No matter how skilled someone is, respect and basic decency matter to us more. Talent gets you in the door. Values decides if you stay. What do you think, did we do the right thing?" Bhati added in the post.

A rejection letter sent to the candidate, also shared by Bhati, stated, "As mentioned earlier, we carried out a routine background check before proceeding with the offer. During this, we came across some recent public posts on LinkedIn that included comments from you, which will deeply hurt the religious sentiments of certain communities."

Here’s Bhati’s post along with a screenshot of the rejection letter:

The LinkedIn post has drawn both criticism and support online. While some praised the company's stand, others felt it crossed professional boundaries.

One user criticised Bhati's action, saying, "Revoking an offer letter for a professional position based on someone's social media activity goes out to show how this cancel culture can actually affect organisation when wrong people get in leadership position."

Another user wrote, "Is this not the kind of micromanagement that employees cry about every time? If organisations keep stalking employees’ personal opinions and comments about everything like this, I guess Mohammed Ahmed Bhati you will never get any candidate or any employee will be left in the organisation of yours."

"You're trying to assert your power, acting like, 'I built this platform, so I decide who gets hired based on whether they align with my beliefs or not.' But I’m sure if someone from another religion did the same against yours, you wouldn’t stay silent, you’d be the first to call it out," read another comment.

However, not all reactions were negative. One LinkedIn user supported Bhati's stance, saying, "The amount of hate this post is receiving is unreasonable."

As conversations around online conduct and hiring ethics continue to evolve, the incident has opened up broader questions about professionalism, privacy and values in the workplace.