Zomato snubs customer seeking non-Muslim rider, earns praise and brickbats

Where many slammed Amit Shukla, a customer who refused to accept food from the hands of a Muslim delivery boy, others sided with him

Food delivery company Zomato won both praise and brickbats online after it refused to entertain a customer's complaint about being assigned a Muslim delivery executive for his order.  

"Food doesn't have a religion. It is a religion," Zomato tweeted in response to the customer's request for changing the delivery executive. 

On Tuesday night, Amit Shukla, a resident of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, had tweeted about cancelling his Zomato order as the designated rider was a "non-Hindu". "Just cancelled an order on @ZomatoIN they allocated a non hindu rider for my food they said they can't change rider and can't refund on cancellation I said you can't force me to take a delivery I don't want don't refund just cancel," Shukla had tweeted. 

In a series of tweets, Shukla had also shared screenshots of his conversation with Zomato customer care, saying that he would take the issue to his lawyers. 

However, Zomato stood its ground and refused to change the rider. Echoing his company's stand, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal tweeted, "We are proud of the idea of India - and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren't sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values." 

Zomato's response won it praise from many quarters. 

Responding to Goyal's tweet, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said he loved the Zomato app and thanked the company's founder for giving him a reason to admire the company behind it. 

Former finance minister and Congress leader, P Chidambaram, tweeted that now, he would order food from Zomato. 

Responding to Zomato's original tweet, Bollywood actor Swara Bhasker said that she hoped other companies and brands also learn decency of public conduct and responsible behaviour as a company from Zomato. 

Even Zomato's competitor, Uber Eats, tweeted in its support.




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However, not everyone was onboard with how Zomato handled the incident. Netizens stood divided on social media. Further, while many slammed Amit Shukla, the customer who refused to accept food from the hands of a Muslim delivery boy, others sided with him.