Remember the ‘nationalist vs. anti-nationalist’ debate that engulfed the country in the wake of the JNU row? While the rest of the country has moved on, the two biggest online cab aggregators of the country – Uber and Ola – have starting fanning the flames of the “nationalism” debate once again, albeit in a different way.

While the rivalry between the two is no secret, the tone of the discourse has acquired a particularly acrimonious nature in the past few days. Ola filed an affidavit before the Karnataka High Court this Monday, in which it accused “foreign companies” (read Uber) of disregarding the laws of the land in pursuit of profit.  Uber, not known for taking one lying down, issued a stinging rebuttal. In a blog post, Bhavik Rathod, GM for West and South, Uber, wrote that even though the company is based out of San Francisco, Uber has a “hyperlocal team solving problems that are locally relevant”. He then goes on to point out that “our competitors” (read Ola) have received funding from foreign companies.

Ola has raised nearly $1.2 billion since 2011, with global investors like Sequoia Capital, Helion Ventures, Tiger Global and others pumping money into the company. So just how ‘national’ is Ola, given that most of its funding is foreign? Ola Chief Operating Officer Pranay Jivrajka responded to Uber’s claims and attempted to establish Ola’s desi credentials in another blog post. Comparing Ola to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Jivrajka wrote “isn’t a company like Alibaba, run by a local entrepreneur like Jack Ma, ‘Chinese,’ despite having a majority of its shareholding from international investors?” Moreover, he accused Uber of trying to “fana debate of nationalism to hide their identity of being a multi-national”.

Given the bitter competition between the two companies, it’s hard to say what Uber’s response is going to be. Perhaps a blog post demanding azaadi from Ola?