New Delhi: Food delivery app Swiggy is caught in a controversy around the ongoing farmer’s protests in the national capital against the Centre’s new farm laws.
The controversy erupted when Swiggy’s response to a satirical tweet from finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s parody account went viral, leading to #BoycottSwiggy trending on Twitter.
“Had an argument with my Bhakt friend over a farmers protest. He said that we are not dependent on farmers for food. We can always order food from Swiggy. He won,” read the tweet from the anonymous parody account.
To this, Swiggy’s official account responded saying, “sorry, we can’t refund education.”
sorry, we can’t refund education 🤷🏻♀️
Advertisement— Swiggy (@swiggy_in) November 30, 2020
The response from the food delivery app’s account indicated that those who believe farmers don’t contribute to food are not educated, and of course even the food Swiggy delivers comes from the crops which farmers grow.
At the time of writing this article, Swiggy’s response alone had over 6,000 retweets and over 30,000 likes, inviting mixed reactions from people on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
While some social media users condemned Swiggy’s response and went to support the boycott trend, others were thrilled to see the sarcastic response. Those tweeting in favour of Swiggy made sure #BoycottZomato trends again, indicating that if Swiggy is boycotted then people will be left with no food delivery app options, since Zomato had already been boycotted by right-wing social media users last month.
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee said, “The best strategy for competitor companies is to offend Bhakts together, you’ll get free publicity and they’ll be unable to boycott everything.”
Bhakts want to boycott Swiggy but they will have no option because they boycotted Zomato earlier
Best strategy for competitor companies is to offend Bhakts together, you’ll get free publicity and they’ll be unable to boycott everything 😂 https://t.co/Alv6fs1oxy
Advertisement— Dhruv Rathee 🇮🇳 (@dhruv_rathee) November 30, 2020
Swiggy joins a host of corporations targeted by right-wing trolls on Twitter for not aligning with the proponents of the Central government or Hindutva majoritarianism. For instance month, Tanishq was forced to pull down an ad featuring an interreligious marriage after right-wing groups claimed that it promoted ‘love jihad’.
In March 2019, consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever came in for ire on social media for an ad campaign for its Surf Excel product. The ad, promoted with the hashtag #RangLayeSang, featured a young (Hindu) girl helping a young (Muslim) boy. Earlier that month they had also targeted a tea brand (Brook Bond) for ‘projecting the Kumbh in the wrong light’ by showing a (presumably Hindu) man deliberately attempting to abandon his father there.
E-commerce giant Amazon also came under pressure to remove products featuring Hindu iconography on doormats and other items in 2019.
