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Deepinder Goyal announces ‘pure veg’ mode in Zomato with separate fleet to deliver it, draws flak

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram questioned whether the delivery persons would also be selected based on their dietary choices.

South First Desk

Published Mar 19, 2024 | 7:59 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 19, 2024 | 10:05 PM

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Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal with Rakesh Ranjan, Zomato food delivery CEO. (X)

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Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal’s announcement of a “Pure Veg” mode on the food business aggregator’s app is drawing flak on social media, citing that this move could further divide Indian society.

Goyal announced that the company’s “pure veg fleet” would deliver food from only vegetarian eateries, specifically ones that do not serve non-vegetarian food.

While some social media users said the company was just “honouring the dietary preferences” of a section of people, others claimed it was a “pure business model”.

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‘Veg fleet of Zomato’

“India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world and one of the most important feedback we’ve gotten from them is that they are very particular about how their food is cooked, and how their food is handled. To solve their dietary preferences, we are today, launching a ‘Pure Veg Mode’ along with a ‘Pure Veg Fleet’ on Zomato, for customers who have a 100% vegetarian dietary preference,” announced Goyal in a post on X.

“Pure Veg Mode will consist of a curation of restaurants that serve only pure vegetarian food and will exclude all restaurants which serve any non-veg food item,” he added.

Our dedicated Pure Veg Fleet will only serve orders from these pure veg restaurants. This means that a non-veg meal, or even a veg meal served by a non-veg restaurant will never go inside the green delivery box meant for our Pure Veg Fleet,” he claimed.

MP questions decision

Responding to the decision, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram questioned whether delivery persons would also be based on their dietary choices.

“Will this ‘fleet’ exclude delivery personnel based on their personal dietary choices? – that’s the hidden agenda, I fear,” he wrote on X.

He added that Zomato is a socially regressive and discriminatory company.

Others also echoed the sentiments of the MP.

One person said that it should also have vegetarian dishes from all restaurants.

Another commented that this segregation is the reason they always choose Swiggy over Zomato.

Meanwhile, some people welcomed the decision of the company.

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