Zomato Scraps Green Dress Code Amid Row Over ‘Pure Veg Mode’ Service

New Delhi: In the wake of intense online debates and criticism surrounding its newly-introduced ‘all-veg’ service, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Wednesday said that all riders, who deliver food, would revert to wearing their red-coloured t-shirts.

“While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders — both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will wear the colour red,” Goyal said in a post on X.

On Tuesday, Goyal announced the launch of a ‘Pure Veg Mode’ and ‘Pure Veg Fleet’ for customers with a 100 per cent vegetarian dietary preference. It features a list of outlets that only cook and serve vegetarian food. “This food will be delivered by a fleet that only caters to these outlets,” he said.

A section of social media, however, labelled Zomato’s new ‘Pure Veg Mode’ “casteist”, even as founder Deepinder Goyal emphasised that it “doesn’t serve or alienate any religious, or political preference”.

“How about a separate fleet for those vegetarians who don’t have onion and garlic and don’t want that mixed with their veg food. How about separate fleets for jhatka and halal non veg. What an idiotic move. Some societies will stop non veg deliveries and you’re only enabling them,” was a comment, for example.

Several users asked the same question: “So how long before they decide the driver of veg food must also be vegetarian?” And then, this: “Does this pure veg fleet run on pure fuels that does not involve decomposed dead animals? Is the driver pure veg?”
“What a ‘wonderful’ way to ensure our country goes back to being a regressive state,” a user said. The ‘caste’ word also found a mention in several reactions to Goyal’s post. “Addressed an issue that was non-existent by creating a new problem and reinforcing caste.”