CA students’ international conference of 2024 made realtime controversy among people however, some kept silent on the issue of ‘Gender discrimination’ act from the part of the ICAI members on the request of the guest. The ICAI has now ordered an internal investigation on the matter.

During the conference, the women members and students were asked to sit 5 rows back in order to pave the way for the guest to speak. The ICAI president has admitted that the organisation is deeply concerned about this issue. He also stated that the reason for this occurrence is not clear.

A clear video asking the women to change their seats from front to back row was released. The most notable part is the issue was just limited to the discussion and criticisms by the CA students and not the CA members except a few.

A comment was made by an anonymous attendee of the conference below the Reddit post that, “I was present here and every single woman in this entire auditorium was silent. How can the managing committee commit such a blunder by inviting this pathetic excuse of a human to an international conference ? I hope everyone responsible for this is fired.”

The incident gained protests from various parts of India in the social media. The major question raised by the people is why a ‘swamiji’ is in the conference or why he was invited for such a professional occasion. If a person is spiritual and if he has certain conditions on women, then that person should not have come to the conference where women are participating and also volunteered.

An anonymous witness, with video proof, expressed disagreement with the discriminatory actions of the committee members. People remain hesitant to speak out on such issues. It is appreciable that the ICAI is investigating this issue on an internal level.