Bajrang Dal activist who ‘stopped’ Blinkit meat delivery says he was saving Sanatan Dharma – Alt News

On July 15, a delivery executive with Eternal’s (formerly Zomato) quick commerce arm, Blinkit, was stopped by workers of Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Bajrang Dal in Ghaziabad. The reason? He was delivering meat to a customer during the holy Hindu period of ‘Shravan’—an auspicious month in the Hindu calendar for worshippers of the Hindu deity Shiva. During Shravan (or Saavan), Shiva devotees pray, fast and abstain from non-vegetarian food. Many devotees also undertake journeys to holy sites barefoot (Kanwar Yatra).

The same day, these Bajrang Dal workers also visited a Blinkit dark store in Ghaziabad and recorded a video, claiming that from that day onwards, throughout the month of Shravan, the company agreed to stop non-vegetarian orders or deliveries through the e-commerce platform. They also assured that no Bajrang Dal workers would visit the Blinkit store thereafter since the company rectified ‘its mistake’.

A few days later, a video of this went viral on social media. Among those who were prominently visible in the video was a Bajrang Dal leader with long hair and a beard. We identified him as Manoj Verma from Ghaziabad. 

Viral Video

In the video, Verma introduces himself as a Bajrang Dal representative. He stops the delivery agent and demands to inspect the delivery bag he is carrying. On finding a packet of frozen meat, he asks the executive to identify himself. When the executive gives his name, Verma rebukes him for delivering meat despite being a Hindu himself.

“Tum Hindu hoke ye kaam kar rahe ho, tumhe sharam nahi aa rahi?” Verma asks (Aren’t you ashamed? You’re a Hindu.)

To this, the delivery agent says that he is just delivering what the customer ordered. Verma then asks him what the name of the customer is and whether they are Hindu or Muslim, and demands to speak to them. The agent reveals the customer’s name and calls her up. Verma then goes on to explain to the customer that it is Tuesday, and the month of Shraavan and they (Bajrang Dal workers) are trying to prevent the sale and consumption of non-vegetarian food.

“Aap Hindu hoke non-veg kha rahe ho?… Achcha aap Hindu nahi ho? Aap Mohmeddan ho?” Verma is heard asking (You’re eating non-veg even though you are Hindu? Oh, you’re not? Are you Muslim?). The lady on the other end reveals that she is Christian; “What is it to you?” she asks Verma.

Verma then tells her they’ll allow the delivery and hangs up. He then says on camera that Christians are worse off than Muslims: “Yeh Christian hai, yani ki Isai dharm ke, jo Hinduon ka dharm parvartan karte hai. Yeh log Mohemeddan se bhi zyada gaye guzre hain. Waise Mohemmedan bhi badnaam hota hai, par ye Mohemeddan se bhi gaye guzre hain.” (They are Christians who convert Hindus. They are worse than Muslims.)

The latter bit of the video shows Verma along with several others outside what seems to be a Blinkit dark store. In the recorded video, also uploaded on Verma’s Instagram account separately, he assures the Blinkit staff that no Bajrang Dal worker would come to Blinkit since they have now stopped meat deliveries.

Saving Sanatan Dharma

Alt News reached out to Manoj Verma, a Right-wing activist who has been associated with Bajrang Dal for a decade. Verma, who works as a property dealer and makes music videos on Hindutva songs, told Alt News that after his video went viral, people have been harassing him by sending him photos of meat and non-vegetarian food. “They are even threatening to come beat me up,” says Verma. In his eyes, he is a defender of the Sanatan Dharma (Hindu faith) and does so without invoking violence.

According to him, the Bajrang Dal’s efforts carried out by him are in line with the ideals of BJP—keeping Hindus united.

“The BJP is in power, Yogi Adityanath is our CM and Narendra Modi is our PM. They have said the same thing… to keep Hindus united and spread Sanatan Dharma,” he said. When we asked him if such efforts to prevent anyone from eating non-vegetarian food was part of Bajrang Dal’s efforts across Ghaziabad or the country, Verma neither confirmed nor denied. He said, “As Bajrang Dal workers, we do our job.”

“Hamare Bajrang Dal ka kaam hai ki hum non-veg roke, Hinduon ko jode, love jihad roke… agar Hindu non-veg khana band kar de toh non-veg apne aap ruk jayega… hum Sanatan dharm ke liye kaam karte rahenge.” (It is our job to stop non-veg, keep Hindus united. If Hindus stop eating non-veg, it will automatically stop being sold. We will keep working towards our faith.

On stopping the Blinkit delivery agent, Verma defended himself by saying that it was just a matter of a few days and Blinkit could have stopped delivering meat items. “But you are getting non-veg delivered, that too on a Tuesday, via a Hindu delivery agent… that guy did not even know. They have shut offline stores [delivering meat] but it’s all happening online.”

“The regime is also supportive of us because they know what the state of Hindus is and what we stand for. We don’t fight, we don’t intimidate or threaten and we don’t beat people up,” Verma said.

Ironically, on July 24, Ghaziabad police took Verma in custody over charges of intimidation and violence against a Blinkit assistant manager. However, they did not spell out the specific sections under which he was charged when we asked for details. 

The Bajrang Dal activist told Alt News that he was in a lock-up for two days before being released. He said he was charged under section 151, but could not provide us with a copy of the police complaint. Notably, Verma was not charged for inciting religious rivalry or hurting religious sentiments.

Alt News separately reached out to Blinkit and the store manager who allegedly lodged the police complaint, but they did not respond to our email or calls. The story will be updated if and when they do.

Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart ‘warned’

While speaking to Alt News at length, Verma also said that when the month of Shravan began, they had ‘asked’ Zepto, Swiggy’s quick commerce arm, Instamart, and Blinkit to stop delivering meat. According to him, Zepto and Swiggy ‘agreed’.

“Saavan ke paavan mahine me non-veg khul ke bik raha tha yahaan Siddharth Vihar me. Ek Blinkit hai, jis din Saavan ka pehla din tha, main inke paas gaya tha ki aap non-veg kripya band kar de. Yahaan do aur company hai jinhone hamara kehna maan liye tha.” (In the holy month of Saavan or Shravan, non-vegetarian items were being openly sold in Siddharth Vihar, Ghaziabad. On the very first day, I went to Blinkit and told them not to do this. There are two other such companies here who listened to us and did not do this.) Verma mentioned Zepto and Swiggy when we asked for the company names.

He then went on to say that Blinkit too had agreed, but they found through “sources” that meat was being ordered online; that too by a Hindu customer. This is when they intercepted the delivery executive and recorded the now-viral video. He did not explain clearly how they found out, but said that there were several activists in the area. Verma also mentioned that Blinkit scrapped the IDs of three people after the incident. Among those was Golu Rajput, who was stopped by Verma on July 15, and is the delivery executive seen in the viral video. Besides Rajput, two more people—Ankit and Mohit—were dismissed by Blinkit. According to Verma, Ankit and Mohit were associated with Bajrang Dal but he did not give us more details. We reached out to Blinkit to corroborate if these three people were fired but did not hear back from them at the time this story was published.

Alt News also separately reached out to Zepto and Instamart to find out if Bajrang Dal activists had visited their dark stores in Ghaziabad and asked them not to deliver meat or non-vegetarian items and whether they ‘complied’. We also asked them if delivery partners were being given training on how to protect themselves and customers’ identities if approached by activists aligned with religious groups. We have not received a response so far. The story will be updated if and when we do.

Targeting Christians

Besides harassing the delivery agent and cornering him to divulge personal customer details, Verma came under fire for his comments targeting Christians and accusing them of carrying out religious conversions. While admitting that his comments were uttered “by mistake”, Verma reiterated that he was simply trying to raise a valid issue:

“Jo dharam parivartan chal raha hai desh me… Hindu bache hi kitne hain?” he asks. (Religious conversions are ongoing; the number of Hindus has come down.) He adds that ‘these people’ lure the poor and marginalised and low-wage workers with money and convert them to Christianity. “There used to be a Krishna Nagar in Ghaziabad; it has now become Christian Nagar. Anyone would feel hurt, right? Our Hindu brethren are getting divided.”

However, a day after he spoke to Alt News, Manoj Verma uploaded a video on his Instagram channel apologising for his comments against Christians.

A Pattern

While Verma did not explicitly say it, he hinted at coordinated efforts being made by several units of the Bajrang Dal to prevent the sale and consumption of non-vegetarian food and items during the holy Hindu month as a show of Hindu strength.

But the ‘informal’ ban on meat, harassing delivery workers and comments against Christians are not new. In December last year, a Zomato worker dressed like Santa Claus as part of a promotional campaign was similarly stopped by a Right-wing group and asked to remove his costume. “Why don’t you wear saffron on Diwali or dress up for Hindu festivals? What kind of a message are you sending to families by dressing up as Santa Claus? Take off the costume… this is against our culture,” the Zomato agent was told at the time.

We documented several such instances in detail. Read: How hostility towards Christians peaked around Christmas, cutting across states

At the beginning of this year, we also documented how Bajrang Dal workers had targeted several schools in Ahmedabad for celebrating Christmas. Read: ‘Why should Indian schools celebrate Christmas?’ Saffron sees red, strikes

More recently, from July 11 onwards, as the month of Shravan began, social media was abuzz with reports of Hindutva activists heckling people and businesses over the sale or delivery of non-vegetarian food. In many cases where pilgrims or Kanwariyas were involved, things took a violent turn. On July 18, hundreds of Hindu Raksha Dal members stormed into a KFC outlet in the Indirapura area in Ghaziabad, protesting against the sale of non-vegetarian food. According to reports, Pinky Chaudhary, the group’s chief, said, “Our message is clear. We are asking all non-vegetarian food outlets to refrain from serving such food during the Kanwar Yatra. If they want to remain open, they should serve vegetarian food only.”

We have also documented several cases of violence during the Kanwar Yatra here.

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