Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani backs Deepinder Goyal over comments on gig economy

Sanjeev Bikhchandani

• Goyal: Gig economy reveals class divides, fosters direct worker-consumer contact
• Bikhchandani calls out "elite hypocrisy" in privileged critics of gig work.
• Goyal warns banning gig work would harm livelihoods, not solve inequality

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Infor Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani took a dig at "elite hypocrisy" after Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal posted about the gig economy and how banning it would destroy livelihoods.

In his post on micro-blogging site X, Goyal, argued that for centuries, class divides allowed the labour of the poor to remain invisible to the wealthy, enabling consumption without personal discomfort or moral reckoning.

He further said the gig economy has disrupted that dynamic by placing delivery workers and service providers directly at the doorsteps of consumers, forcing repeated, face-to-face interactions between the working class and the consuming class.

Bikhchandani, amplified the argument by endorsing Goyal’s view and adding a pointed critique of what he described as “champagne socialist” outrage.

He questioned the credibility of critics who, despite leading highly privileged lives, speak emotionally about the alleged exploitation of gig workers. "Very well written

@deepigoyal Every word is true. 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 on X, without naming anyone.

Bikhchandani also defended the pushback by him and Goyal against the outrage over the working conditions of delivery partners. "Not our preference but when we are attacked in an unfair manner we have to respond. We were advised to keep quiet and it would go away in a couple of days. But we decided to fight it out in public and call out these crooks," he told Moneycontrol.

What did Goyal say?

In a very long post on X, Goyal said that the gig economy has shattered the divide that was built and has exited between the rich and the poor for centuries together.

"For centuries, class divides kept the labor of the poor invisible to the rich. Factory workers toiled behind walls, farmers in distant fields, domestic help in backrooms. The wealthy consumed the fruits of that labor without ever seeing the faces or the fatigue behind it. No direct encounter, no personal guilt. The gig economy shattered that invisibility, at unprecedented scale," he wrote.

"Suddenly, the poor aren't hidden away. They're at your doorstep: the delivery partner handing over your ₹1000+ biryani, late-night groceries, or quick-commerce essentials. You see them in the rain, heat, traffic, often on borrowed bikes, working 8–10 hours for earnings that give them sustenance. You see their exhaustion, their polite smile masking frustration with life in general," Goyal's post said.

It further read: "This is the first time in history at this scale that the working class and consuming class interact face-to-face, transaction after transaction. And that discomfort with our own selves is why we are uncomfortable about the gig economy. We want these people to look our part, so that the guilt we feel while taking orders from them feels less."

'Ban gig work and you remove livelihoods'

"Ban gig work and you don’t solve inequality. You remove livelihoods. These jobs don’t magically reappear as formal, protected employment the next day. They disappear, or they get pushed back into the informal economy where there are even fewer protections and even less accountability. Over-regulate it until the model breaks, and you achieve the same outcome through paperwork instead of slogans: the work evaporates, prices rise, demand collapses, and the people we claim to protect are the first to lose income," Goyal wrote.