Sony TV’s popular quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati asked one of its contestants on Monday to correctly answer if Arnab was also a name for a COVID-19 vaccine. The contestant from Uttarakhand correctly answered the question, leaving host Amitabh Bachchan hugely impressed. Arnab Goswami is also the controversial anchor of Republic TV, which he founded with the help of BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar in 2019.
The question for Rs. 20,000 read, “What do names Nisarga, Nivar, Burevi and Arnab refer to?” The options were ‘train stations in Kolkata, COVID-19 vaccines, trains in India, tropical cyclones.” The contestant correctly answered in favour of tropical cyclones.
Explaining the answer in detail, Bachchan said, “You’ve answered it beautifully.” The Bollywood megastar continued, “In 2020, Nisarga hit Maharashtra, Nivar and Burevi had hit Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The next cyclone developing in the Indian Ocean will be called Arnab.”
Arnab Goswami has been in the news late all for wrong reasons. He was arrested and sent to Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail for a week in an abetment to suicide case. He was released only after the Supreme Court made an extraordinary intervention.
The anchor is also facing arrests in the TRP Scam case for which a charge-sheet has already been filed in a Mumbai court. This was after senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Mumbai Police, told the Bombay High Court Bench comprising Justice SS Shinde and MS Karnik recently that the city police did not want to continue its earlier undertaking to refrain from taking coercive action against the accused in the case.
Last week, special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat was incensed after Arnab Goswami failed to turn up for the hearing in the abetment to suicide case at a court in Raigad on Thursday. Taking a dim view of the Republic TV founder’s action, Gharat had urged the court to issue a warrant against Goswami.