An American software engineer at hedge fund Citadel has publicly defended his Indian colleagues after a racially charged rant directed at Indian professionals appeared on X (formally twitter), pushing back stereotypes about job competition.

John Freeman, a software engineer at Citadel, said many of the leaders he works with are Indian and praised their professionalism, technical expertise and collaborative work culture. In response to an X post that labeled Indian professionals as harmful and habitually incompetent, Freeman wrote: “Let’s talk about Indian competition.”

“My team leader is Indian. My boss is Indian. Their boss, who hired us both, is Indian. Their boss, the CTO, is Indian. They’re all pretty sharp,” Freeman said. He added that his colleagues “know this business inside and out,” work well with others and communicate clearly. “Everyone is very friendly. They all speak very good English,” he wrote.

Freeman also dismissed a recurring stereotype mentioned in the original post: that Indian professionals exaggerate the urgency at work. “I’ve been here a year and I’ve never met an ‘everything is priority urgent P1’ guy, of any race,” he said, noting that his previous Indian manager at another company was also “pretty good”. He concluded by saying that if someone consistently encounters incompetence in their workplace, “maybe your company only hires incompetents.”

The comments were made in response to an X post that accused Indian colleagues of assigning unjustified “P1 super urgent” tags to tasks and using intimidation instead of processing or data. The post also referenced Madhu Gottumukkala, the Indian-origin acting director of the US Cyber ​​Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA).

Gottumukkala recently grabbed attention after a politician The report revealed that he had uploaded a sensitive document to ChatGPT, prompting an internal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. The report clarified that Gottumukkala had received prior permission to use the AI ​​chatbot.

Freeman’s defense comes at a time of heightened anxiety for Indian professionals in the US, especially those on H-1B visas. Increased scrutiny of foreign workers, more restrictive immigration pathways and a proposed $100,000 fee for new H-1B applications under President Donald Trump’s policy framework have intensified the debate over the role of Indian talent in the US tech ecosystem.

Who is Madhu Gottumukkala?

Madhu Gottumukkala currently serves as Acting Director and Deputy Director of CISA, the agency charged with safeguarding the physical and cyber infrastructure critical to US national security.

Prior to joining CISA, he was commissioner and chief information officer of the South Dakota Office of Information and Technology, where he oversaw statewide computer systems and cybersecurity operations. With more than 24 years of experience in government and the private sector, Gottumukkala also serves on the advisory board for Dakota State University’s College of Business and Information Systems.

Born in India, Gottumukkala earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Andhra University before moving to the United States. He holds a PhD in information systems from Dakota State University, an MBA from the University of Dallas, and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Arlington.