BackIndia China stand-off: Zomato employees burn company T-shirts in protest
Zomato is backed by Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group HoldingAnother protester said they were ready to starve but would not work in companies having investment from China
PremiumKOLKATA : To protest against the killing of 20 Indian soldiers by the Chinese Army in Ladakh last week, a group of Zomato food delivery platform employees in Kolkata tore and burnt their official T-shirts on Saturday. The protesters even claimed that they had quit the startup as it has investors from China.
Zomato is backed by Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding. In 2018, Ant Financial had invested $210 million in Zomato for a 14.7% stake. The food delivery major recently raised an additional $150 million from Ant Financial.
"Chinese companies are making profit from here and attacking the Army of our country. They are trying to grab our land. This cannot be allowed," one of the protesters said. During During the protest at Behala, they urged people to stop ordering food via Zomato.
Another protester said they were ready to starve but would not work in companies having investment from China.
In May, Zomato laid off 520 employees or 13% of its workforce, along with salary cuts for the rest of the employees for at least the next six months starting June, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
There was no immediate reaction from Zomato and whether the protesters were among those who were retrenched was not known. Zomato had about 4,000 employees, excluding contracted delivery workers or "riders".
Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a fierce clash with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15. Since then, calls for boycotting of Chinese goods have been increasing in India.
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