Ola Electric, India’s leading e-scooter manufacturer, has witnessed a mind-boggling 9% drop in its stock price following CEO Bhavish Aggarwal’s social media feud with comedian Kunal Kamra.
How did it start?
The controversy began when Indian comedian Kunal Kamra shared an undated photo on X (formerly Twitter), criticizing the way numerous Ola e-scooters were covered in dust outside Ola’s storeroom. Kamra tagged Roadways Minister Nitin Gadkari and other government bodies, questioning whether Indian EV users deserve such service.
Rather than let it slide or offering to work on the problem, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal responded by slamming the post. He accused Kamra of posting a “paid tweet”, sarcastically offering him a job, and mocking his comedy career.
Since you care so much @kunalkamra88, come and help us out! I’ll even pay more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career.
Or else sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers. We’re expanding service network fast and backlogs… https://t.co/ZQ4nmqjx5q
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
War of words: the Feud Escalates:
This sparked an increasingly heated war of words between the two, raging across social media with users observing and commenting.
Kamra retaliated by calling Aggarwal an “arrogant, substandard pr*ck”, challenging him to prove that his initial complaint had been “paid”.
In response, Aggarwal went on the offensive. “Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service center. Bahut kaam hai. I will pay better than your flop shows pay you. Show your audience how much you truly care and whether you’re only gas and BS,” he wrote.
Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service center. Bahut kaam hai. I will pay better than your flop shows pay you.
Show your audience how much you truly care and whether you’re only gas and BS. https://t.co/yEvxhoGTvR
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
The two continued to go at each other’s throats, with Kamra questioning Ola’s refund policy and suggesting a new measure for Ola to implement.
“So you can’t offer a 100 percent refund to people who have purchased your OLA in the last 4 months who are genuine customers… But you want to pay me who’s not a costumer. let me give you other options. Can you do 85 percent refund for 1/ 2 months? Can you do 75 percent refund for 3 months? Can you do 65 percent for 4 months? Don’t run away, I can help you by compiling the list of genuine customers & making sure their refund is processed. Their delight will be enough to pay me… I’ll give an email ID in my next tweet once you stop trying to hire me & focus on your actual customers,” he wrote.
However, Aggarwal was unamused. “Comedian ban na sake, chaudhary banne chale. Do your research better next time. And the offer to come and help us out in our service center remains open. Take up the challenge. Maybe you’ll learn some real skills for a change.”
Comedian ban na sake, chaudhary banne chale.
Do your research better next time. And the offer to come and help us out in our service center remains open. Take up the challenge. Maybe you’ll learn some real skills for a change. https://t.co/4KekvB5Qbu
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
Influencer calls out Paid Promotions:
The argument took an unexpected twist when social media influencer Aditya Shah revealed that Ola Electric had approached him for a paid promotion on X.
Sharing a screenshot of the request, Shah said, “While the Ola Electric CEO rants on someone else’s paid tweet or not, I & multiple influencers were approached to do a paid tweet about Ola just as recently as last month.”
While the OLA electric CEO rants on someone else’s paid tweet or not
I & multiple influencers were approached to do paid tweet about Ola just as recently as last month
Ola hired PR agency to create nice tweets on Social media
The regulator should crack down on such PR stunts pic.twitter.com/U1P59dZmbP
— Aditya Shah (@AdityaD_Shah) October 6, 2024
Netizens criticize Aggarwal for “Rude, Arrogant, Ignorant” Behavior:
During the Kamra VS Aggarwal feud, the vast majority of social media observers have favored the former, voicing their support of him on X and slamming Aggarwal for his derogatory remarks. Many claimed to be Ola customers and backed the comedian’s complaints.
“I don’t know how to cook but that doesn’t mean I can’t say if the taste is good or not. How good a comedian is he has no relation whatsoever to how bad your OLA service is,” a user wrote.
“The worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. Wake the f up and read the writing on the wall,” another added.
““Kamra didn’t take your customers money and deliver sub standard service. You did that. Take some accountability for it instead of shamelessly fighting with celebrities on Twitter,” another wrote.
“Sir, I am also an old user of OLA S1 pro and the service thing is true your service centre guys don’t behave well with the customer. The software is the biggest mess here to be honest. Instead of these statements try to resolve & optimise the software issues,” another affirmed.
Entrepreneurs speak out for Bhavish Aggarwal:
While the majority of customers have spoken out for Kamra, some entrepreneurs have spoken up for Aggarwal. One such example is Vatsal Sanghvi, who wrote that “Bhavish has probably done something crazy and put in a humongous amount of effort to make Ola Electric so big. Most of us can’t even imagine what it takes,”
Acknowledging the issues surrounding customer service, he sided with Aggarwal, though he suggested that he should have handled the situation with better communication.
Not the best take but one needs to understand that it takes mammoth effort to build something like Ola electric – most of us can’t even imagine what it takes
Yes, there are a lot of issues and I’m sure they would be trying to fix it
Bhavish has probably done something crazy… https://t.co/kdwtkY5qaN
— Vatsal Sanghvi (@Vatsal_Sanghvi) October 6, 2024
Political Response:
This increasingly heated controversy even caught the attention of political figures, with Congress Kerala highlighting the perceived bias of the government’s support for Ola Electric.
They claimed that the Modi government favored Ola, leaving other homegrown EV companies like Ather Energy hanging in the cold.
OLA Electric gets massive subsidies under the PLI scheme from the Modi government, but why Ather Energy, a homegrown EV company, doesn’t get the same support?
Ather CEO Tarun Mehta politely calls it a “faulty document,” but everyone knows it’s no mistake—it’s a deliberate move… pic.twitter.com/d5bUeXjdPS
— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) October 6, 2024
Ola Stock Prices Fall, Kunal Kamra Responds:
Investors reacted negatively to the dispute, with Ola Electric’s stock price tumbling notably. The shares of Ola Electric Mobility fell by 8% on Monday, with the decline marking the company’s third consecutive day of losses.
Kunal Kamra took a jab at this rapid downfall, writing, “Bhavish Aggarwal, who thought Sunday should be a working day, Worked Yesterday to prove himself wrong.”
Bhavish Agarwal who thought Sunday should be a working day,
Worked Yesterday to prove himself wrong…— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) October 7, 2024
Ola Faces Pressure from CCPA:
Ola now faces pressure from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), who issued a show cause notice following an increase in consumer complaints.
Sent on October 3rd, this outlines several alleged violations of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, including deficiencies in service, misleading advertisements, and unfair trade practices.
Ola has been given 15 days to respond to the notice, which may possibly lead to further legal consequences if it is left unaddressed.
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