‘Hostages With Helmets’: Raghav Chadha Tears Into Delivery Platforms Over Workers’ Strike

Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha on Saturday sharply criticised the business models of quick commerce and food delivery platforms, arguing that the need for police intervention to keep services running was itself an “admission” that the system was fundamentally flawed.

The Rajya Sabha member’s post on X appeared to be a response to remarks by Zomato and Blinkit CEO Deepinder Goyal, who had described striking delivery workers as “miscreants” while defending the platforms as large-scale job creators.

Without naming Goyal, Chadha wrote that delivery partners across India had gone on strike demanding “basic dignity, fair pay, safety, predictable rules and social security,” but were met with what he described as an attempt to turn a labour issue into a law-and-order problem.

“Workers asking for fair pay are not criminals,” Chadha said. “If you needed police to have your workers stay on the road, they’re not employees. They’re hostages with helmets.”

Chadha also took aim at Goyal’s argument that a system could not be unfair if so many people continued to work within it. Drawing a parallel with feudal-era practices, he said exploitative systems like the zamindari system had survived for centuries despite being unjust.

In a lengthy post, the AAP MP alleged that delivery platforms had mounted a public relations campaign against striking workers and their supporters. “The sad part is that the PR agencies got paid. Influencers got paid. Hashtags got bought,” he claimed, adding that the only people still waiting for fair payment were those delivering orders. He did not provide evidence for the allegation.

Chadha further said online attacks had turned personal, targeting his family and lifestyle. “When someone runs out of answers, they reach for insinuations,” he wrote, adding that while his life was transparent, the same could not be said for algorithms determining workers’ pay.

As of 7:30 pm on Saturday, Goyal had not responded to Chadha’s remarks.

What Deepinder Goyal said

Goyal had taken to X on Thursday following a workers’ strike, saying Zomato and Blinkit recorded record deliveries on New Year’s Eve, “unaffected by calls for strikes that many of us heard over the past few days.”

“Support from local law enforcement helped keep the small number of miscreants in check,” he wrote, thanking authorities and on-ground teams for coordination. Goyal argued that a fundamentally unfair system would not be able to attract and retain a large workforce.

He also urged people not to be swayed by what he called “narratives pushed by vested interests,” describing the gig economy as one of India’s largest organised job-creation engines whose impact would compound over time.

Chadha vows to continue fight

In his post, Chadha reiterated that he had raised the issue of gig workers’ rights in Parliament during the winter session and vowed to continue the fight.

“This is a fight I will see through. In Parliament. Outside Parliament. Until there is accountability,” he said, adding that workers who built the platforms “order by order, kilometre by kilometre” deserved dignity, not labels like “miscreants.”

Last month, Chadha had also called for an end to 10-minute delivery services offered by quick commerce companies, describing them as “cruelty” towards gig workers who risk their lives to meet tight deadlines.

“These people are not robots,” Chadha said in the Rajya Sabha. “They are someone’s father, husband, brother or son. The cruelty of this 10-minute delivery should end.”