Delivery workers staged a strike protesting low pay and pressure linked to ultra-fast delivery models.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha met workers, said platforms profit from “human sweat and labour”.
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal defended business model.
As gig workers staged a strike recently protesting low wages, long hours and pressure created by ultra-fast delivery models, a heated online battle erupted over the state of the platform-based workforce.
The face-off intensified after AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha spent New Year’s Eve meeting delivery riders in Delhi, later posting a video and writing on X: “This is not a rant. This is a conversation with those whose lives power our everyday comfort. It’s tragic that millions of delivery riders… are now forced to protest just to be heard. These platforms didn’t succeed because of algorithms alone. They succeeded because of human sweat and labour. The gig economy cannot become a guilt-free exploitation economy.”
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal was quick to respond with a thread defending the platform model, calling the gig sector “one of India’s largest organised job creators”. Goyal argued that such work offers flexibility, insurance and opportunities that help families educate their children and framed public discomfort with gig labour as discomfort with inequality itself.
“This is the first time in history at this scale that the working class and consuming class interact face-to-face. And that discomfort with our own selves is why we are uncomfortable about the gig economy.” Goyal said that 10-minute deliveries are driven by store density, not speeding, and claimed there are no penalties for late deliveries.
The latest to join the face-off and siding with Goyal is Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani. He reposted Goyal’s defence and wrote on X: “Very well written. Every word is true.” He then launched a personal attack on Chadha. “It beggars belief that a Champagne Socialist who married a film star and had a designer wedding in Udaipur and a first wedding anniversary in Maldives has the audacity to then shed crocodile tears around alleged exploitation of gig workers. Aam Aadmi my foot,” he wrote online.
He wasn’t alone as Navam Capital’s Rajiv Mantri too slammed Chadha in a post, saying, “Find out who is funding this idiot, the new age wannabe Datta Samant… do not underestimate the well-planned and organised campaign underway now to undermine one of the biggest job creating industries in India.” He warned such agitation risks damaging industries, citing past examples from states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
India’s gig economy has rapidly expanded over recent years, with companies like Zomato, Swiggy and Blinkit positioned not just as tech platforms, but as major employment ecosystems enabling millions to earn livelihoods. This larger tension formed the backdrop to the current confrontation as corporate leaders and entrepreneurs taking on a politician is unusual in India’s business-politics equation.
