Who would have taught that the example of Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be used in such a way, that too allegedly by an IIT professor?

A response from an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professor has gone viral on social media, with the original tweet by X user @cneuralnetwork garnering over 526.8k views.

The response of the professor is to a student seeking concession in attendance due to a debate competition.

Seems like a student, with the desire to participate in a debate competition, reached out to a professor looking for a concession in attendance. The part of the alleged response by the IIT professor said, "People admire Gates or Zuckerberg because they dropped out of college to pursue what they believed in, not because they went around begging professors to make concessions or exceptions for them."

He went on to say that if the student is courageous enough he should drop out and "make something really worthwhile".

"But we both know you are never going to that, and we both know that a debate competition has no tangible value in the real world. If you want respect, demonstrate bravery and strength, not cowardice," the screenshot from the alleged response to the IIT professor went on to say.

Social media platform X users had several thoughts on this.

An IIT Mandi Professor, Nirmalya Kajuri, pointed out that it is okay for professors to enforce their attendance but, "It's not fine to respond with grandstanding, condescension and idiotic arguments."

Rohit Girdhar, Vice-President, Strategy and M&A at Infineon Technologies, Asia Pacific tweeted that, "Sorry but this is in poor taste. Why so much drama? Just say yes or no. Why take pot shots at a young person?"