"Tolerate Each Other": Zomato Reinstates Employee Who Was Fired Over 'National Language' Remark

In a row over a food order that went viral, Zomato today sacked an agent after a customer from Tamil Nadu said he was told to "learn Hindi" when he sought a refund. Hours later, the food delivery app's founder tweeted that the employee had been reinstated and that the "level of tolerance and chill" needs to be much higher in the country.

An ignorant mistake by someone in a support centre of a food delivery company became a national issue. The level of tolerance and chill in our country needs to be way higher than it is nowadays. Who's to be blamed here?

¡ª Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021

What Zomato founder said

Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal added, "Tamil Nadu, We love you". Goyal stressed that the call centre agents are young people and are not experts on languages and regional sentiments.

"Having said that, we should all tolerate each other's imperfections. And appreciate each other's language and regional sentiments. Tamil Nadu - we love you. Just as much as we love the rest of the country. Not more, not less. We are all the same, as much as we are different," he said.

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The food delivery and restaurant rating apps, Zomato, faced backlash on Twitter on Tuesday after a customer shared their experience with the app's customer service executive. The customer was told that everyone should know Hindi as it is the national language, during a grievance redressal conversation.

Exchange between Zomato executive and customer

Vikash, a user presumably from Tamil Nadu, was facing an issue with his order and decided to take it up by chatting with the customer service executive on the app. In screenshots that Vikash has posted on Twitter, it is seen how he is unable to get his refund due to a miscommunication between the app and the restaurant.

The customer service executive explained that this was happening due to a "language barrier" to which Vikash replied saying that they should have sent someone who knew Tamil. To this, the executive said, "For your kind information, Hindi is our national language. So it is very common that everybody should know Hindi little bit."

Ordered food in zomato and an item was missed. Customer care says amount can't be refunded as I didn't know Hindi. Also takes lesson that being an Indian I should know Hindi. Tagged me a liar as he didn't know Tamil. @zomato not the way you talk to a customer. @zomatocare pic.twitter.com/gJ04DNKM7w

¡ª Vikash (@Vikash67456607) October 18, 2021

Why is it offensive?

Not only was this statement factually incorrect since Hindi is not our national language, but is was also an offensive thing to say, something Vikash pointed out in his tweet.

Hindi is one of the official languages detailed in Article 343 of the Indian constitution but has not been designated as the ¡°national language¡± in any official capacity. There has always been stringent opposition from south Indian states to the imposition of the Hindi language on people who speak other regional languages.

Social media users slam Zomato

The exchange soon triggered a Twitter storm with many slamming the company for imposing the language on customers.

Team @zomato @zomatocare from when did Hindi become a National language.

Why should the customer in Tamil Nadu know hindi and on what grounds did you advise your customer that he should atleast know a little of Hindi.

Kindly address your customer's problem and apologize. https://t.co/KLYW7kRVXT

¡ª Dr.Senthilkumar.S (@DrSenthil_MDRD) October 18, 2021

For the 100th time, Hindi is not our National Language.

¡ª Madan Gowri (@madan3) October 19, 2021

When will schools start teaching that Hindi is NOT our "national language"? The absolute ignorance + gall is what is infuriating.

¡ª Shilpa Rathnam (@shilparathnam) October 19, 2021

¡°Reject Zomato¡± trends on Twitter

Soon, hashtags like ¡°Reject Zomato¡± and ¡°Hindi imposition¡± went viral with 20k tweets and over 4,500 likes and 2,500 retweets.

#Reject_Zomato AND YOU DON'T HAVE CUSTOMER SUPPORT IN TAMIL LANGUAGE THEN HOW CAN YOU SENDING NOTIFICATION IN TAMIL...
Begging needs regional language Righttt???? Just remove that language racist bastard from your company & post a tweet Or else you'll face great loss pic.twitter.com/zZjLt8UX7e

¡ª Tamizharasu.g (@tamilspicy) October 19, 2021

Which is unacceptable Zomato?

U r trying to impose ur favoured language and is that acceptable?

Imposing hindi here is a nightmare so never ever try that.If any doubt on that do check your ancestor's history and it's clearly embosed as they "LOST ".

So don't .#Reject_Zomato https://t.co/p5vT8jICji

¡ª Yuvarani (@yuva_uthvar) October 18, 2021

5? to 1?
Dear @zomato @zomatocare HINDI IS NOT OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE. IF YOU WANT TO DO BUSINESS IN OUR STATE PLACE EMPLOYEES WHO KNOWS OUR LANGUAGE.#Reject_Zomato pic.twitter.com/mR4OAQbzB8

¡ª Calmrade (@Calmrade) October 18, 2021

Pass this basic fact to your employees.

Hindi is not an national language of India.

It is one of the official language.

#?????????????????

Also note we are not opposing Hindi. Anyone can learn the laubguage they wish.
It is the imposition we hate

¡ª ???? (@malaithenioffl) October 18, 2021

Zomato issues apology

Earlier, Zomato issued a public apology for the incident in Tamil and English, and informed the customer that they had ¡°terminated the agent for their negligence towards our diverse culture¡±. However, the company has now reinstated their employee.

Vanakkam Vikash, we apologise for our customer care agent's behaviour. Here's our official statement on this incident. We hope you give us a chance to serve you better next time.

Pls don't #Reject_Zomato ?? https://t.co/P350GN7zUl pic.twitter.com/4Pv3Uvv32u

¡ª zomato (@zomato) October 19, 2021

Responding to Vikash¡¯s complaint, the company¡¯s customer support page Zomato Care agreed that the incident is ¡®unacceptable¡¯ and promised to check it out immediately.

The company also insisted that the employee¡¯s remarks did not represent Zomato¡¯s stance on language and diversity. A Tamil version of the app is also in the works, it added.