Ladakh stand-off: Zomato employees burn company T-shirts in protest

A group of Zomato food delivery platform employees in Kolkata tore and burnt their official T-shirts on June 27 in protest against the killing of 20 Indian soldiers by the Chinese Army in Ladakh last week. During the protest at Behala, some of them claimed that they had quit their job as Zomato has a sizeable Chinese investment and urged people to stop ordering food via the company.

In 2018, Ant Financial, part of Chinese major Alibaba, had invested USD 210 million in Zomato for a 14.7-per-cent stake. The food delivery major recently raised an additional USD 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.

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 per cent of its workforce in a huge retrenchment exercise 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.

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.