Deepinder Goyal, CEO of food aggregator Zomato, would have had no idea that his decision to launch a “Pure Veg Mode” would trigger an online attack for trying to cater to pure vegetarian customers. Despite Zomato’s explicit statement that “anyone who prefers pure veg food can avail the service and this Pure Veg Mode, or the Pure Veg Fleet does not serve or alienate any religious or political preference,” the online woke/liberal mob launched a scathing attack on Zomato and its CEO.
To no surprise, the leftists and wokes somehow linked Zomato’s move to cater to the pure vegetarian market to a move that empowered and “encouraged Brahminism and casteism”. The perennially Brahmin-despising lot equated launching a “Pure Veg fleet” to the preservation of “untouchability”. Their far-fetched insinuations also included that a pure veg service would encourage neighbourhood policing.
Recently, a fake advertisement “Eviction Safe Food Delivery” attributed to Zomato’s competitor Swiggy surfaced online. The sarcastic ad was created by a ‘Swiggy fan’ to take a jibe at Zomato for introducing the pure veg delivery fleet which would wear a green colour t-shirt instead of the trademark red. The ad featured an AI-generated image showing a food delivery man at a customer’s door with an order, while in the background, a few men appear to be following another delivery person wearing a green t-shirt with sticks in their hands.
The text in the fake ‘advertisement’ read, “Eviction-safe food delivery. In Indian neighbourhoods, your dietary preferences are best kept private. Our delivery fleet doesn’t leak your private habits to the world. You also save some money as we don’t have to pay for the life insurance of our delivery staff against mob lynchings.”
The usual players resorted to fearmongering, stoking ‘apprehensions’ that after rolling out the green-coloured pure veg fleet, Zomato’s original red-coloured t-shirt-wearing delivery partners will be assaulted and mob lynched by pure veg-preferring people. This, however, is nothing more than a figment of their imagination, as even the strictest adherents of pure vegetarianism have the basic common sense to respect the food preferences of non-vegetarians and those who may not be strict vegetarians; thus, there is no question of attacking or lynching the usual red t-shirt wearing delivery fleet simply doing their job.
It is pertinent to mention here that Zomato has often faced criticism for sending food orders that mistakenly mix up non-veg items. This is a concern with restaurants that serve both veg and non-veg food. Sometimes, vegetarian customers have even complained of finding bones and meat pieces in their food orders, bringing much condemnation to the delivery service and its standards.
Zomato had introduced the pure veg service to tackle this problem, however, the ever-metastasising “Wokeism” compelled Zomato to cave in. While the company earlier decided that its pure veg fleet would wear green colour, it backtracked and said that its delivery fleet would continue to wear Zomato’s trademark.
“All our riders — both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will wear the colour red,” Deepinder Goyal said adding that the fleet meant for vegetarian orders will not be identifiable on the ground although it will show on the app that veg orders will be served by the veg only fleet.
As reported earlier, Goyal said that “this will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs or societies during any special days… our rider’s physical safety is of paramount importance to us. We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be nice if that happened because of us.”
Ironically, the same left-liberals and wokes who talk about freedom, choice and whatnot do not want to respect the food preferences of pure vegetarians. In fact, the very word “pure” riles them up as they believe that pure in “pure vegetarian” implies caste especially Brahmanical superiority and a marker of discrimination against others. However, contrary to their warped sense of understanding of the concept, the term pure simply signifies the strictness in adherence to vegetarianism and not superiority or discrimination.
Outrage on Pure Veg, silence on Halal: Hypocrisy and wokes/liberals go hand in hand
It’s amusing to observe the stoic silence of ever-outraged wokes and liberals on Halal food certification. This lot loves criticising Brahmins for their pure vegetarian food preferences but has no objections to Halal, which is discriminatory in the sense that only Muslims can perform the Sharia-compliant Halal slaughter of animals, implying that non-Muslims are automatically denied employment at a Halal firm. This, however, does not appear to discriminate or foster religious supremacy to the wokes and liberals, most likely because they realise the difference between the reaction of Brahmins and Muslims to their ‘outrage’
Being a “pure vegetarian” or a Brahmin can be arduous in the land of Hindus as Brahmins are under perpetual scrutiny by those despising them. The pernicious wokes leave no opportunity to vilify Brahmins in the pursuit of their ultimate goals to eradicate what they assume ‘Brahmanical superiority’, ‘patriarchy’ and whatnot as well as ostracise the Brahmins.
It is worth recalling the case of Kerala’s famous culinary expert Pazhayidom Mohanan Namboothiri who last year refused to participate in the tender for serving food at school fests in the state. Namboothiri had taken this decision after he was attacked for his Brahmin identity even though he had been serving food at school fests for over 16 years and has served over two crore students to date. Back then, many along with Congress leader VT Balram had objected to serving veg food only that too by a “Brahmin cook”. Apparently, food has no religion but it has ‘caste’.
A lot of people eat both veg and non-veg food, while many prefer not to eat non-veg on specific days, and then some people do not eat non-veg food at all for religious beliefs like Ahimsa, or Satvik or for health-related reasons. The Brahmin-hating lot is rattled over the “pure vegetarian” food preference of a section of people calling it discriminatory, encouraging untouchability and whatnot completely ignoring that these people are not forcing their preferences on others.
It is also crucial to note that pure vegetarians do not impose their dietary preferences on others. Furthermore, they are not demanding or pressuring non-vegetarians to give up their food preferences; instead, they simply want to uphold their choice without harming or affecting others in any manner.
It must here be recalled how Sudha Murthy, the former chairperson of Infosys Foundation, writer, and philanthropist was criticised last year by the same wokes/liberals for saying that carries her own bag of food and cooking items when travelling abroad because she is a pure vegetarian. She was even labelled a ‘casteist’ for being a pure vegetarian. These same wokes who accuse Brahmins of preserving and practising “untouchability” have over the years spearheaded vicious campaigns against Brahmins, ostracising them for their pure veg food and other lifestyle preferences.
