With widespread outrage on social media over the launch of the "Pure Veg Mode", Zomato said it will retain the red dress code for its new fleet instead of green.
CEO Deepinder Goyal on Wednesday clarified that all its delivery partners will continue to wear red a day after he hinted that the company may "roll it back in a heartbeat" if there are negative social repercussions.
Trying to clear the air, Goyal took to X, saying Zomato's regular fleet may be barred by some societies and RWAs.
"There's an opinion that some societies and RWAs will now not let our regular fleet in. We will stay alert for any such cases and work with these RWAs to not let this happen.
"We understand our social responsibility due to this change, and we will not back down from solving it when the need arises," he said.
"Please note that this Pure Veg Mode, or the Pure Veg Fleet doesn't serve or alienate any religious, or political preference," he added.
Explaining why Zomato introduced its "Pure Veg Fleet", Goyal said, "But why did we need to separate the fleets? Because despite everyone's best efforts, sometimes the food spills into the delivery boxes. In those cases, the smell of the previous order travels to the next order, and may lead to the next order smelling of the previous order. For this reason, we had to separate the fleet for veg orders."
He clarified that delivery partners in the veg fleet will not be decided on their dietary preferences.
"I would like to repeat that this feature strictly serves a dietary preference. And I know there are a lot of customers who would never order food from a restaurant which serves meat, irrespective of their religion/caste," Goyal said.
"And I promise, that if we see any significant negative social repercussions of this change, we will roll it back in a heartbeat," Goyal said.
However, many on social media pointed out that Zomato's new fleet can result in discrimination based on religion. "There have been multiple instances of people rejecting food deliveries because the delivery agent was a Muslim. The argument used by them was also 'we didn't want our food purity to be tarnished'. I won't be surprised if 'pure veg' Zomato initiative lead to more discrimination," Fatima Khan, a journalist, posted on X.
Dalit activist Shalin Maria Lawrence said, "Deleting the App. I will never use Zomato again. This is Casteist and criminal. Hope someone files a case on them".
Another user, Mini Nair, posted, "'Only Zomato green-fleets are allowed entry.' Soon this will be written across many places in India. @deepigoyal gives another reason to divide us."
