Zomato religion row: 'Jhatka' debate rages, Uber Eats faces boycott call

Food aggregator app Zomato won plenty of plaudits on Wednesday as it responded with class on Twitter to a customer who purportedly cancelled an order because the delivery rider was a Muslim. Zomato responded to the user, whose Twitter handle appeared to be deactivated on Thursday, by saying “Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion.”

However, like all things on social media, controversies take different shapes and by Wednesday evening, Zomato faced a boycott call by rightwing handles.

The rightwing anger against Zomato appeared to stem from the aggregator featuring restaurants that served Halal meat only. Halal meat is meat obtained from animals that are slaughtered in adherence to Islamic practices. Rightwing handles criticised Zomato for not offering a tag for restaurants offering 'Jhatka' meat, which is meat from animals slaughtered in the Sikh tradition. While the Halal method involves draining the blood slowly from the animal, the Jhatka method involves a single blow to kill the animal.

Zomato uploaded a statement on Wednesday evening on its Twitter handle about how restaurants sought the “Halal tag”, which was issued by an all-India body and not the aggregator itself. Zomato announced it provided information about restaurants offering Halal meat, so that a customer can make “an informed choice”.

Referring to Jhatka meat, the Zomato statement said "there are no organised units" for the certification of Jhatka meat. "As a direct consequence of this gap in authentication, Zomato doesn't yet feature Jhatka tag on its platform—but might do that soon if customers demand that tag from us," the statement said.

Prominent rightwing commentator Madhu Purnima Kishwar asked Zomato about the issue of Jhatka meat on Twitter. “If food doesn't have ny religion, would you dare supply Jhatka meat dishes to Muslims? Conversely, do you have any system of assuring Sikh & Hindu customers that they are getting Jhatka meat, not Halal? Whenever I've asked this question before order, answer has been sheepish” Kishwar wrote.

BJP leader Baijayant Jay Panda tweeted on the Zomato issue on Thursday, mentioning the Jhatka debate. “#Zomato is right to deny a customer's request for a delivery person of a diffrt religion. But wrong (& hypocritical) to claim it dsn't mix religion with food. It fusses over religious clients' Halal/Jain food. Curious if it does for all, eg a religious Sikh wanting non Halal meat,” he tweeted.

Rightwing commentator Shefali Vaidya described the Zomato religion controversy as a “blessing in disguise”. She tweeted, “In a way, this #Zomato controversy is a blessing in disguise. It has brought out the #Jhatka v/s #Halal issue out in the open and now at least there is an open discussion on the need for #Jhatka certification.”

Meanwhile, Uber Eats, a rival to Zomato in the food aggregator space, expressed support for Zomato's declaration on Wednesday. Uber Eats was hailed for its tweet that said “@ZomatoIN, we stand by you”. But by Thursday, #BoycottUberEats was among the top trends in India from 8am, with thousands of tweets.