BHOPAL/JABALPUR: Madhya Pradesh police on Thursday issued a notice to
Amit Shukla – Jabalpur based infra consultant who was slammed for cancelling
Zomato order over non-Hindu rider – under section 107 and 116 of CrPC — a preventive measure to preempt breach of peace.
SP
Amit Singh said additional SP (crime) has been asked to look into the matter. “Notice is being sent to confirm if he had floated contents intended at sparking communal hatred. If had had done so, we will ask him to give a reason. One our investigations are complete we would initiate necessary action,” Singh told TOI.
The Zomato delivery boy in Jabalpur, who got sucked into a social media storm after a customer asked him to be changed because he is a “non-Hindu”, had told TOI this is not the first time it happened with him. And the customer, whose tweet triggered the controversy, says he was only concerned because of the holy ‘Sawan’ month and his words have been given a religious twist by “frustrated groups”. Both of them have stopped responding to calls.
When TOI spoke to the delivery boy on Wednesday evening, he said he had no idea about the controversy raging countrywide. “It has happened with me once earlier. We are poor people and have to tolerate such things,” he said.
Jabalpur resident Amit Shukla, whose tweet triggered the viral response from Zomato — “food has no religion” — claims his words have been misinterpreted. “It was a normal tweet — that the company is not ready to refund my payment. It was mainly an issue related to Zomato’s customer service. There was no religious angle in that. But a section of people started giving it a different colour on
Twitter and started taking the matter in a different direction. It is Sawan and we have religious faith. Because of that we had requested them to change the driver if not cancel and repay,” he told mediapersons, adding: “They did not refund. Still, I said okay. This was the issue, nothing more. I am being trolled by a bunch of frustrated people belonging to a particular section.”
Shukla, who adds ‘Pandit’ to his name on his Twitter profile, describes himself as a ‘proud nationalist Hindu’ with an MBA and says he is a ‘business and project consultant’ for Solar Power Smart City Tech.
On Tuesday, he had tweeted: “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 followed it up with another tweet: “@ZomatoIN is forcing us to take deliveries from people we don’t want else they won’t refund and won’t cooperate. I am removing this app and will discuss the issue with my lawyers.” He attached screenshots of the purported order and the name of the driver, restaurant and a chat with Zomato support. It went viral.
Zomato responded the next morning, stating: “Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion.” This tweet, posted at 10.30am, had 6,489 comments, 1.8 lakh retweets and over 55,000 ‘likes’ by 8.20pm. Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal also 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.”
The company has launched a ‘Food Has No Religion’ campaign in response to Shukla’s tweet, but many are questioning Zomato for “cashing in on the situation”, pointing out that it classifies meat as Halal but not ‘Jhatka’. In a statement titled ‘Food, Religion and Halal’, Zomato said: “Yes, food does not have a religion. Humans make their choice of what to cook and what to eat — whether or not you are religious person. We respect all religions, and we therefore provide all possible information to make sure that you get the food of your choice (i.e. we have tags for Jain food, vegan food, and Navratra thali as well). Halal tag, which appears on our platform, is a result of restaurants’ seeking that distinction — not us as an aggregator.”