A Bengaluru entrepreneur’s decision to stop hiring men from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh has sparked a heated debate on X, after he linked the move to alleged misconduct by a former employee towards female colleagues.Karthik SG, also known as Karthik Shenoy, founder of Bengaluru-based A1 Sports World, which runs sports programmes for children, said the company introduced the policy after dismissing an employee following repeated complaints about his behaviour towards women.In his initial post, Karthik apologised before saying the company had arrived at the decision after a “lengthy discussion and quarrel”. He named the four states and added that a Rajasthani woman was already part of his team and had fully supported the decision.Let me get this right again…This mess started 2 weeks ago when an employee from one of the aforementioned mentioned state was fired, despite giving him warning 2wice he was still abusive to female employees, and he was forcing himself on one of them…We work with quite… https://t.co/yKeNMMBTl8— Karthik SG (@kkarthikkgs) September 23, 2026The post drew widespread attention, prompting Karthik to issue a detailed clarification.According to him, the controversy began around two weeks earlier when an employee from one of the four states was dismissed after allegedly continuing to behave abusively towards female employees despite being warned twice.Karthik further alleged that the employee had been “forcing himself” on a female colleague. He said the nature of the company’s work, which involves young children, made the alleged misconduct particularly concerning.He questioned whether men who hold what he described as such an “ideology and mindset” should be given employment opportunities.CEO defends company’s hiring recordKarthik also defended A1 Sports World’s broader hiring record. He claimed the company has 32 employees, including 14 women, while 20 employees are from other states and 12 are from non-Southern states.He also said the workforce includes employees from different religious backgrounds, including Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Buddhist employees.Addressing criticism of his original post, Karthik said Indians had become “highly insecure and egoistic” and were often unwilling to acknowledge problems, instead responding with whataboutery. He argued that societies progress when they recognise shortcomings and attempt to correct them.Karthik also questioned why, according to him, “almost 85-90% every reply is coming from Bihar”, while stressing that he was not trying to target individuals.And im criticised to put a blanket ban on hiring these kind of men…Would anyone allow this kind of misogynistic mindset men near their women and children? https://t.co/OfB5b2PNpy— Karthik SG (@kkarthikkgs) September 24, 2026He maintained that the company believed in equal opportunity irrespective of gender, caste and creed.CEO faces criticism over state-wise hiring banKarthik also pushed back against users criticising Karnataka, saying he was aware that there were problems in his own state as well.He wrote that “no place is white as a paper” but claimed that problems were acknowledged and efforts were made to address them.In subsequent replies, Karthik claimed that the former employee was a 24-year-old MBA graduate and alleged that his behaviour changed around two months after he was hired.The controversy was amplified after the post was shared by X account @IndianTechGuide, drawing further reactions from users who questioned both the alleged misconduct and the company’s response.One user asked whether any legal action had been taken against the former employee, writing: “Kindly advise if any legal action other than sending him back was taken? Penalty or punishment by the law.??”Another questioned whether a police complaint had been filed, saying: “Have you file police complaint or Just crying on twitter for payout. please dhare FIR no. in place of made up Stories,”Some users focused on the decision to generalise across entire states. One commenter wrote: “These generalisations can be pulled for any state, including Karnataka. I don’t think you should generalise any state though. You’re claiming that unlike North Indian states, Karnataka is trying to improve. What if someone says there is evidence to contrary?”Another accused the entrepreneur of using the controversy to gain online attention, writing: “If you are really concerned about the safety of your workers you would have written this in that perspective but here your intention is to gain followers and generate some paycheck from X. Good going so called entrepreneur.”The discussion also included personal criticism. One user wrote: “So just because he did the crime, you thought every other male coming from this state have the same mindset. What a rubbish argument.”