Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami has been slapped a legal notice seeking damages worth Rs 10 crore for allegedly calling the flood victims of Kerala ‘shameless.’
A report by Kerala’s Matrubhumi said that CPI-M leader P Sasi had sent the legal notice to Goswami asking him to either apologise to the people or pay the amount (Rs 10 crore) to Chief Minister’s flood relief fund. In his notice, Sasi alleged that Goswami’s comments had the potential to cause enmity in society in Kerala and they belittled the pride of Malayalees.
“Arnab has to seek pardon with the same significance as that of the discussion broadcasted in the channel. If fail to do so, I will move forward with legal actions,” Sasi was quoted as saying.
Angry Twitter users had recently launched a hashtag #ShamelessMalayali to target Goswami for allegedly ridiculing the victims of nature’s fury in the God’s own country. The natural calamity has left close to 400 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
In the viral video, which was a part of his Friday night’s debate show, Goswami was heard shouting, “This group is shameless, is the most shameless bunch of Indians I have ever seen. They’ve gone around spreading the lie religiously. I don’t know what they get for it. Whether they get paid for. Do they get paid money for abusing their own country..point is there is a conspiracy to malign India.”
No sooner had he the clip surfaced on Twitter, users began to target Goswami and the Malayali co-founder of Republic TV, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, with the hashtag #ShamelessMalayali. Goswami’s critics called anyone who had association with his channel shameless in response to the former’s ‘shameless’ jibe.