New Delhi

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has asked the global food delivery company Swiggy to take action against an anonymous customer who ordered food online with a pre-condition that the delivery person should not be a Muslim.

Reacting to the incident on Twitter, the Lok Sabha member Moitra slammed those who did not take food from the Muslim delivery boy. The incident happened in Hyderabad. An anonymous customer had ordered food online and posted instructions in the box of Swiggy's delivery app that he doesn’t want a Muslim to deliver his food.

Appealing to Swiggy, she wrote, "Please blacklist the said customer, make the name public and file a police complaint. This is clearly illegal."

Sickening to see normalisation of hatred & bigotry - what would earlier be hidden personal prejudices now become proud public proclamations of majoritarianism.@Swiggy pls blacklist customer, make name public & also file police complaint. This is blatantly illegal. https://t.co/WRzKIlAZhs

Also Reacting to Moitra's post, Sheikh Salauddin, national general secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), shared a screenshot of the customer’s order without disclosing the name of the customer or his mobile number on social media.

He wrote, "Dear Swiggy please take a stand against such request. We (delivery workers) are here to deliver food to everyone, be it Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, religion does not teach to keep enmity amongst ourselves.”

Islamophobia in India: Shocking request made by a Hyderabad customer on food delivery app #Swiggy. 'Don't want a Muslim delivery person', the customer wrote in the instruction box given on the app. #Islamophobia_Is_On_Peek_In_India #Islamophobia pic.twitter.com/ND8cwIAAud

— South Asian Journal (@sajournal1) September 1, 2022

After the picture of the order went viral on social media, many netizens condemned the customer’s attempt to communalize the food distribution work and asked Swiggy to take action against such bigotry.

Congress Party’s MP from Sivaganga Karti P. Chidambaram has supported Salauddin's demand. He said that the food delivery companies should sit and decide among themselves how they have to face such bigotry.

Rahul Easwar has requested Swiggy to blacklist the customer. He wrote on Twitter that the customer is spreading hatred against our Muslim brothers. In this way, the haters want to humiliate India.

Responding to TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra's tweet, Swiggy wrote, "No place for discrimination in the distribution universe of Swiggy. The assignment of orders is fully automated and does not take into account any such requests. We are trying to verify the authenticity and novelty of the screenshots to get more information. The incident was first reported a few days back.

Sickening to see normalisation of hatred & bigotry - what would earlier be hidden personal prejudices now become proud public proclamations of majoritarianism.@Swiggy pls blacklist customer, make name public & also file police complaint. This is blatantly illegal. https://t.co/WRzKIlAZhs

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) September 1, 2022

However, this is not the first time a customer has made such a request on a food delivery app. A few days ago, a man in Madhya Pradesh canceled an order from Zomato asking it to replace the delivery boy whom he identified as a Muslim through his name. The company rejected his request.