In a letter to its founders and the government, a group of current and former employees also demanded an inquiry into Snapdeal’s affairs

While Snapdeal is going ahead with its plans to pivot to a new seller-focussed platform after its merger with Flipkart fell through, a group of former and current employees have shot off a letter to the top management and the Prime Minister’s Office, accusing its founders of terminating the merger for personal motives and to save their skin.

The missive, which was apparently written in the first week of this month, says that Snapdeal’s new plans to pivot to a new model, which it has dubbed as Snapdeal 2.0, is not viable and that it will affect thousands of employees working for the organisation. The letter also termed it as a poisonous plan to destroy the organisation.

According to the group, Snapdeal’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal are liars, and it has urged the government to launch an enquiry into the affairs of the e-commerce company.

“An independent inquiry into the affairs of this company would reveal how the interests of employees and possibly shareholders were destroyed to protect the interest of two people. The overall corporate governance of this organization needs to be looked at. It is run as as dictatorship while maintain the show of a pleasant workplace. Just scratch the surface and the truth would come out (sic),” they wrote in the letter.

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“We would request you (the government) to step in and stop these two people from stealing what is not rightfully theirs, destroying thousands of families and obstructing people from getting their due,” the letter further read.

As per the authors of the letter, Bahl and Bansal have lied about GSV, number of users and sellers, lay-offs and profit.

The letter has also accused the founders of not taking care of their employees, despite tall promises made to them: “The past few months have been testing for us. We have endured emotional and physical hardships as we saw a unicorn change into a troubled company and reading about the board room fights in media every day. But we kept the faith and believed what you said — the employees of this organisation are the “single biggest priority,” the authors wrote.

“People believed that your “single biggest priority” would not be adversely impacted. We believed when you said there would be a positive outcome for the employees. But then came the disturbing news. As we exchanged notes with our colleagues in technology, HR, CX, finance, business, category teams etc., more and more of us realized that Plan B is not viable. It is poisonous plan to destroy the organisation so that you stay in charge — at whatever cost. So many people to be impacted for the sake of just two of you,” they alleged in the letter.

“Or perhaps, you could never understand that this organisation is now bigger than your egos? Most of the great initiatives and acquisitions that you chose to drive against good advice led us to this? That one you overruled the internal due diligence to acquire Go-Javas? That your relatives are sellers on the platform and benefitting from it? What about the acquisitions those that were made in India and abroad only to be shut down? About your friends ruining expensive third party agreements with guaranteed returns?” the letter went on.

They also asked if the founders are scared of something — something that a change of management would have found out like sweetheart deals or the hundred million hole in the balance sheet.

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“A thousand job losses lead to a direct impact of nearly 5,000 people. Over the last two years, you have fired over 8,000 — so 40,000 lives. These are real people, not statistics. They are from different functions and they know what you have done. The day you start executing plan B, you will get 1200 resignations, every person will leave — this is a promise from all your employees. And the flow of resignations has started. The curse of the 40,000 dispossessed (employees) will always be on you and your ill-gotten gains will come to light — your employees, ex-employees and their families promise you that,” the letter adds.

The letter has also been addressed to the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, MD Axis Bank, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Central Bureau Of Investigation, and Central Vigilance Commission.

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