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Zomato recently scrapped its plans to launch a ‘pure veg fleet’ for its upcoming ‘pure veg mode’ that aims to cater to the needs of Indian vegetarian customers.

“We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us,” said CEO and co-founder Deepinder Goyal. He had earlier claimed that “overwhelmingly positive” response to the plan for a segregated delivery fleet.

President of Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), Sheikh Salauddin, said: “The last time someone on Zomato requested for a delivery partner of a particular religion, Goyal said ‘food has no religion’. Today, he seems to have gone back on this. Is he now going to categorise delivery partners on the lines of caste, community and religion?.”

The food aggregator is not new to controversies. Zomato, last year, had apologised for an advertisement that showed a Dalit character from the film Lagaan being “recycled” and used as inanimate objects. The advertisement also led the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) to issued a notice.