BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has taken offense against Arnab Goswami’s new digital venture’s name, Republic. He says the “Republic” as a name of a company is a violation of Emblem and Names, Act,1950.
As per item 6 in the Schedule accompanying the Act, use of “The name, emblem or official seal of the President, Governor, Sadar-i-Riyasat or Republic or Union of India” is prohibited for commercial purposes.
Swamy has written to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting complaining against the star Anchor about the illegal use of the term in his new company.
“Hence the grant of a license to a news channel to broadcast under the name of “Republic” will be contrary to law,” writes Swamy, urging the Ministry to investigate the matter.
However this is not the first public conflict between Swamy and Arnab. Subramanian Swamy, was a regular on the show although the connection didn’t end too well. Swamy thoroughly abused Arnab in the course of one 2014 episode, calling him ‘Ignoramus’, ‘liar’ (over 25 times), ‘dumbo’, ‘stupid fellow’, and ‘congenital liar’. Since then, Swamy has never returned to the show, and the relationship between them has remained tempestuous.
