Food delivery app Zomato won hearts all over the Internet with its reply to a customer who cancelled an order that was assigned to a “non-Hindu” rider.
Amit Shukla took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction over being assigned a “non-Hindu rider”, and demanded his order be cancelled. The food delivery platform, whose Twitter handle is known to for its quirky tweets, talked about unity but not without sparking a debate with its response.
“Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion,” Zomato tweeted. The tweet, which has now garnered over 20,000 retweets, garnered applause from users, and also led to the food aggregator issuing a clarity on its non-discriminatory guidelines.
The debate took an uglier turn, when users alleged “discrimination” and “double standards” by the food delivery service against Hindus. In response, Zomato Founder Deepinder Goyal reiterated the s his company stands by and reminded everyone of “the idea of India”.
Several users on the microblogging platform tweeted about boycotting the application. As of 10.30 p.m, #boycottZomato was trending on Twitter India after #IStandWithAmit. Four out of the five top trending topics in India were due to Zomato’s tweet.
A few Twitter users questioned Zomato for its ‘Halal’ tag on restaurants that offer Halal-compliant food. Clarifying the issue, the online food delivery service said, “the Halal tag on Zomato is a result of restaurants seeking distinction—not us as an aggregator.”
Zomato’s rival Uber Eats India, too, showed solidarity.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah lauded the company.