EaseMyTrip goes after MakeMyTrip for its known Chinese ties, again

Bengaluru: Nishant Pitti, co-founder of travel aggregator EaseMyTrip, who loses no time in building brand-equity around nationalistic sentiments, has now turned his attention to the big player in his sector - MakeMyTrip, cornering it for having dominant Chinese stakeholding.

It is well-known that China's largest online travel agency Trip.com (branded Ctrip) was an early MakeMyTrip investor. In April 2019, it had increased its ownership in the company to 49%. Therefore, several directors at MakeMyTrip are from senior Ctrip management positions - information publicly available on its website.

On Friday, Pitti,  drumming up the nationalistic fervour, posted on social media platform X, “MakeMyTrip may dismiss this as a “motivated accusation” but when national security is at stake, silence is not an option,” before launching into his attack on the competitor.

According to Pitti, MakeMyTrip’s board is “under influence” due to some directors having “direct ties to China, including pivotal appointments by http://Trip.com, a company with Chinese ownership”. He made similar statements on the board members, alleging a “deep-rooted structure of Chinese-backed influence”.

This follows him slamming MakeMyTrip, earlier in the week, on Indian Armed Force personnel booking tickets via the platform. “Indian Armed Forces book discounted tickets via a platform majorly owned by China, entering Defence ID, route and date. Our enemies know where our soldiers are flying,” he’d quipped on X.

While MakeMyTrip has not responded to Friday’s tirade, the company on Thursday underscored to a news agency that it is an Indian company, complying with all applicable laws.

As has been reported, the past few days have seen most travel aggregators, including MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, Pickyourtrail, and Cleatrip, besides others, suspend travel packages to Turkey and Azerbaijan, for their support to Pakistan in the latest Indo-Pak strife.

It may be recalled that EaseMyTrip had taken a similar position on national security by announcing its discontinuation of flights to Maldives, which it subsequently restarted.