Tomayto, Zomahto?

At 417 pm on March 19 Deepinder Goyal CEO of food delivery partner Zomato set off one of the most divisive debates in recent memory over the politics of foodThe first tweet of an eighttweet threadmdashwhich at the time of writing this had over 40 crore viewsmdashseemed a general observation of how India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world who are particular about how their food is cooked The second tweet held a glimpse of things to come ldquoTo solve their dietary preferences we are today launching a lsquoPure Veg Modersquo along with a lsquoPure Veg Fleetrsquo on Zomato for customers who have a 10037 vegetarian dietary preferencerdquoCrockery shattered for milesGoyal further elaborated on the companyrsquos plan which only deepened the fault lines ldquoPure Veg Mode will consist of a curation of restaurants that serve only pure vegetarian food and will exclude all restaurants which serve any nonveg itemrdquo he added The decisionmdashclarified Goyalmdashwas not meant to alienate any religious groups or political preferencesLess than 24 hours later Goyal rescinded green uniforms for the Pure Veg fleet saying ldquoThis will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with only nonveg food and blocked by Resident Welfare Associations RWAs or societies on special dayshellip our ridersrsquo physical safety is of paramount importance to usrdquoVivek Korde and Shahu PatoleThe public discourse around the move was quick and equally diving Supporters of it felt heard ldquoTrue Vegetarians feel most comfortable in eating and ordering from only vegetarian restaurants The biggest concern is how their foods are handled Whether separate utensils and oils are used or notrdquo commented X user Kamal KumarThe green uniform was recalled due objections raised like those by X user Kanthala Raghu ldquoI think Zomato is creating a new class of delivery drivers wearing green with green box so they can be easily identified from the clothes they wearrdquo tweeted Raghu Adding ldquoI am worried the regular Zomato drivers will not be allowed to enter certain veg only societies They will be beaten on the roads for ferrying nonveg food when there is a puja going on Will they be harassed because they are delivering to an obvious nonHindu customer Not sure what the business impact of this decision would be but lsquogreen fleetrsquo is a garbage approach from my perspective keeping in mind the current communal situation in the countryrdquo she addsBut itrsquos business as usual for most drivers as they canrsquot afford to stop Like Sufraan in South Mumbai The 25yearold who has been a delivery staffer for five years says the air is thick with worry ldquoI found out when a fellow rider asked me whether I had been told anything by my team leaderrdquo he says in the middle of picking an order ldquoThey might regret thisrdquoSufraan feels the decision will create unnecessary enmity ldquoItrsquos creating an IndiaPakistanlike situation Dividing riders into vegetarian and nonvegetarian fleets is unnecessary It will change the attitude of those delivering pureveg items I guess I will be on the lookout to see if anything happens to those of us delivering nonvegetarian food I really hope that nothing does but yes I will be speaking to my friends who deliver too and see what to do nextrdquo He pauses and ends with a sentiment common amongst gig workers ldquoAs long as they donrsquot use this to reduce our money I am okay with anythingrdquoDinesh Kasiyapur has swtiched from being delivery partner to driver He saw a sixmonth ban because he delivered nonveg food to a vegetarian customer by mistake in a bid to complet his target for the day PicSameer MarkandeMost food delivery partners earn R800 to R900 per day a monthly salary of R30000 is the maximum after riding for 15 hours a day says Dinesh Kasiyapur who left Zomato oneandahalfyear ago ldquoOne busy dayrdquo says the Jogeshwari resident ldquoI had a vegetarian and nonvegetarian delivery each By mistake I gave the nonvegetarian package to the client who had ordered vegetarianrdquoThe ordeal that ensued made him say ldquonever againrdquo ldquoThe vegetarian customer called and cussed at merdquo he says about the incident that took place in 2022 ldquoI apologised profusely I was so harrowed because I just wanted to finish my target for that day But the customer complained to the company and the next day I was not able to log into the app I got a notification saying an issue had been raised with my attitude I went to the local office and raised a ticketrdquo But Kasiyapur was banned from delivering for six monthsldquoI drove for Ola and Uber but those six months were just agonyrdquo he says ldquoI had no money no answer about where I was headedrdquo he says ldquoWhen they allowed me to deliver again I was just too disheartenedrdquo The income from being a cabbie as well after company deduction is too low for the hours he puts in The rising cost of fuel and disrespectful customers just isnrsquot worth the work with appbased aggregatorsA 2023 report by Fairwork India in conjunction with the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy CITAPP and the Oxford Internet Institute said ldquoThere is no doubt that most platforms take a stance against the most egregious forms of bigotry by explicitly stating in their consumersrsquo terms and conditions that discriminating against workers will not be toleratedrdquo In one instance when a consumer requested that their food not be delivered by someone from the Muslim community the platform cancelled the order and the CEO tweeted ldquoFood does not have a religionrdquoHowever the same platform later received flak for an advertisement that drew on a Dalit cinematic character to portray waste collection in a manner that was widely perceived as reinforcing demeaning occupational and caste stereotypes The platform promptly removed the advertisement claiming it only wanted to ldquospread awareness about thebenefits of recycling in a humorous wayrdquo The report has also pointed out that 80 per cent of consumers in 12 Metro cities including Mumbai have said that they are aware that platform workers work long hours While 66 per cent of consumers in the large cities strongly agreed that the government must act against platforms that repeatedly fail to offer their workers either fair pay or fair conditionsGanesh a delivery agent in CBD Belapur who preferred to share his first name only sees no discrimination in separate fleets ldquoIrsquom vegetarian but I have been delivering nonvegetarian food for over three yearsrdquo he says ldquoIf there is such a provision I will join the vegetarian fleet Irsquom happy the customer is happyrdquoActivist Vivek Korde from Mulbhut Adhikar Sangharsh Samiti feels this is a very slippery slope ldquoA few years ago people were very happy when housing societies disallowed those from nonmajority communities to buy a home in their colonyrdquo he points out ldquoToday if you are from a majority community but eat meat you wonrsquot be sold a flat In Nazi Germany one of the first discriminations against Jews was that they were told to walk on the left side of the road It was justified with the reasoning lsquoThey have a clear uninterrupted side of the road to walk onrsquo And this is my worryhelliprdquoShahu Patole is no stranger to the political move of using food to flare up sentiments The Dalit food historian feels that if we go into the history of what is vegetarian in India too many skeletons will tumble out of the closet ldquoVegetarianism in the Indian context is because of the Ayurvedic concept of Satvik Rajasik and Tamasic We have food that comes under each category These are specific and indigenous to the Indian subcontinent Neither was vegetarian pizza and pasta which seems to be a popular dish in this list of approved or banned foods Let us be honest and think about what we are doing with segregating people using the food we eat Where are we headed as a societyrdquo asks PatoleWe finally reached out to Irfan Shaikh an exSwiggy rider He has worked as a courier and as a delivery person for an agrofood company but has since moved back to his place of birth in Uttar Pradesh ldquoThe gig economy no matter which productmdashbe it food vegetables or icecream deliverymdashis not made for the hardworking man It sucks you dry and spits you out I will come back looking for a job in Mumbai but I will not work in the gig industry anymore because they use us They donrsquot care about us We need to start thinking about ourselvesrdquo he says