New Delhi: Former editor-in-chief of Times Now and senior journalist Arnab Goswami, who is expected to launch his ‘Republic’ channel soon, has met a roadblock, with controversial BJP leader Subramanian Swamy raising objections to the channel’s name.

Swamy has written to the ministry of information and broadcasting, stating that as per the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, the name ‘Republic’ cannot be used for commercial and professional purposes.

In the letter addressed to the ministry, Swamy stated, “It has come to my notice that a new TV channel under the name style of: ‘Republic’ is in the process of being launched. The channel will be led by Arnab Goswami. The ministry of corporate affairs filings show that Goswami…has become a director in ARG Outliner Media Private Limited and SARG Media Holding Private Ltd on 19-11-2016. The channel is to go by the name of ‘Republic’.

“It may be noticed that certain names and emblems have been prohibited from being used under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 for professional and commercial purposes,” the letted stated, adding that as per the schedule accompanying the statute under item 6, there is an express prohibition from using the word ‘Republic’ would be contrary and a direct breach of the Act.

Swamy urged the ministry to look into the issue and determine if it was prohibited to issue a licence to a company of such name.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Vinay Katiyar on Wednesday said there were “more beautiful women star campaigners than Priyanka (Gandhi Vadra).”

Ms. Vadra is one of the star campaigners of the Congress for the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and has also played an important role in forging an alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

To a question, the BJP’s leader said, “It doesn’t matter… there are girls and women who are more beautiful than her [Ms. Vadra] and are also star campaigners.”

“Some of them are artists and heroines… they are more beautiful than her,” he said.

Later talking to reporters, Mr. Katiyar tried to downplay his remarks, saying it was an internal matter of the Congress as to whom they want to appoint as their campaigner.

But, he added that if the Congress is under the “impression that they have the beautiful face of Priyanka for campaigning, then to counter that the BJP also has many beautiful faces which it may ask to campaign for.”

However, he said, “…It is wrong and unfair to compare beauty with capability but Congress is doing this.”

Mr. Katiyar’s own name is missing from the BJP’s campaigners’ list for the elections, despite the fact that he hails from Uttar Pradesh.

Remarks expose BJP’s mindset towards women: Priyanka

Ms. Vadra said Mr. Katiyar’s remarks expose the BJP’s mindset towards the better half of the country’s population while the Congress sought an apology for insulting women.

Congress hit out at Mr. Katiyar, saying it reflects the “petty and insulting culture of BJP that commodifies women” and accused the BJP of insulting India’s womanhood for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah should apologise.

“If that’s all BJP sees in my colleagues who are each strong, brave and beautiful women that have battled through all sorts of hardships to get where they are, then he makes me laugh even more. Because he exposes the BJP’s mindset towards the better half of the population of India!!!,” Ms. Vadra said in response to Mr. Katiyar’s remarks.

Coming down heavily on the firebrand BJP leader, better known for pushing the Hindutva agenda, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said BJP has “insulted” India’s womanhood and such conduct, behaviour and words prove BJP’s mentality.

“BJP has insulted India’s womanhood. Such conduct, behaviour and words prove BJP’s mentality. Time for PM Modi and Amit Shah to apologise,” he said.

Mr. Surjewala said BJP-RSS suffer from a “deep rooted and retrograde anti-women mindset. There is a long list led by Mohan Bhagwat and Kailash Vijayvargiya“.

“Disparaging and atrocious remarks of Vinay Katiyar on Priyankaji reflect the petty and insulting culture of BJP that commodifies women.

“To adjudge India’s women by physical features and not by their capacity, capability, strength and sacrifice proves the lowly BJP mentality,” he said.

The Congress leader also said that if Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah have any respect left for women in the country, they should display courage by initiating strict action against Mr. Katiyar for his remarks otherwise women will show their power by voting against the BJP.

Ms. Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra attacked the BJP leader and demanded that Mr. Katiyar publicly apologises for his “misogynist” and atrocious” remarks.

“Shocked at misogynist and atrocious remarks of BJP MP Vinay Katiyar saying there were ‘prettier star campaigners’ in his party than Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. This exposes the shameful mindset of some of our political leaders.

“We all need to respect women and accept them as equals instead of commoditising and objectifying them. As a society, we need to bring in a change. Vinay Katiyar should publicly apologise for his remarks,” Mr. Vadra said in his Facebook post.

(PTI)

New Delhi: In relief to farmers who reeled under cash crunch on account of demonetisation, the government today decided to waive Rs 660.50 crore interest on short-term crop loan for November-December 2016 and grant Rs 400 crore to Nabard to bear refinancing cost of co-operative banks.

A decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to help farmers who faced hardships because of scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from November 8 mid-night.

“The Cabinet today approved interest waiver of Rs 660.50 crore for two months (November-December 2016) for farmers who have taken short-term loans from co-operative banks,” Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told PTI after the meeting.

According to a government release, the Cabinet has approved Rs 1,060.50 crore towards “the cost of interest waiver for two months (November-December, 2016) for crop loan disbursed by co-operative banks between April 1 2016 and September 30 to farmers and providing interest subvention and administrative cost to Nabard on short-term borrowing of about Rs 20,000 crore for on-lending to cooperatives banks in the current financial year”.

According to the proposal, farmers who have paid interest on short-term loans during the demonetisation period of November and December will get the refund in their bank accounts through direct benefit transfer (DBT).

He said further a sum of Rs 15,000 crore allocated during 2016-17 to implement the Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) has already been utilised.

The government, the release said, waived the interest on short-term crop loans as farmers faced difficulty following cancellation of legal tender character of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

They faced problems in encashing the cheques received against sale proceeds of their kharif (summer) produce in mandis. Inadequacy of cash constrained the farmers in carrying out rabi (winter) sowing operations and servicing the interest of the short-term crop loans, especially in view of the restrictions imposed on co-operative banks, it said.

The government provides short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh at subvented interest rate of 7 per cent per annum. An additional incentive of 3 per cent is provided to farmers for prompt repayment of loans within due date.

For 2016-17, the government has set a target to disburse agri credit of Rs 9 lakh crore, of which Rs 7.56 lakh crore has been disbursed to farmers till September of this year, as per the official data.

(Agencies)

Lucknow: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will be campaigning for party candidates in Uttar Pradesh for the state assembly elections. Her name figured in the list of 40 star campaigners released by the Congress on Tuesday.

This will be for the first time that Priyanka would be electioneering in the state, beyond the family fiefdoms of Amethi and Rae Bareli, where she has canvassed for her mother and brother Rahul Gandhi in the past too.

Only a few days back, Priyanka successfully stitched up an alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state where Congress got 105 seats and the SP 298.

She will be campaigning in Amethi, Rae Bareli, Chandauli, Ghaziabad and Saharanpur.

The other high-profile star campaigners named by the Congress include former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, UPCC Chief Raj Babbar, Congress National General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Janardan Dwivedi, Ahmad Patel, Kamal Nath, Pramod Tiwari, Mukul Vasnik and Sanjay Singh.

The list also names Pradip Mathur, Nirmal Khatri, P.L. Punia, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupendra Singh Hudda, Salman Khursheed, Kumari Shailja, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Manish Tiwari, Rajeev Shukla, Sachin Pilot, Deepender Singh Hooda, Shakil Ahmad, R.P.N. Singh, Naseeb Singh, Shobha Oza, Zuber Khan, Rana Goswami, Avinash Pandey and film actress Naghma.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will be on a three-day official visit to India from today during which he will attend the Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest.

The Crown Prince will be accorded a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhawan tomorrow, following which he will lay wreath at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at the Raj Ghat.

The Crown Prince will in the afternoon meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House here following there will be exchange of agreements between both sides.

Later in the evening, he will meet Vice President Hamid Ansari at hotel Leela Palace here and then call on President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

He will emplane for Abu Dhabi after witnessing the Republic Day parade on January 26.

(Agencies)

Chennai: Protesters and police locked horns in the city on Monday as law and order took a turn for the worst with images going viral of police personnel torching autorickshaws parked on the streets. Reacting to the photographs, Chennai city police commissioner S George refuted the charges, stating that the video “appears to be morphed”. “It is ridiculous to blame the police. We have given the video footage to our cybercrime wing for analysis,” he said.

Police personnel tried to control crowds gathered near Vivekanandar Illam as resilience turned to violence with stones being hurled and vehicles being vandalised.

Chennai city police, monitoring protests held on Kamarajar Salai off Marina beach, were forced to evacuate protesters. Police say senior officers conducted various rounds of talks with the agitators before they were forced to use “mild force” to remove them from the location.

One of the protesters, Loyola College professor Andrew Sesuraj though said there were instances of police excess. “Policemen went on attacking people and vandalised vehicles parked on the road. They also forced shopkeepers to down their shutters,” Sesuraj said. “My motorbike was partially damaged after a team of policemen hit it. They also attacked an old man and couple of innocent women walking on the road on Seventh Street of Anna Salai in Sastri Nagar,” he added.

On another stretch of the Marina, a platoon of police personnel tried to remove protesters, as they charged towards the sea, forming a human chain of resistance along the shoreline.

Protesters were heard shouting out that even though Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam had brought in a special ordinance to conduct jallikattu or the bull-taming sport, it did nothing for their demand that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act be amended.

But efforts by the police to quell the mob, for most part seemed impeded by a lack of preparedness as well as coordination between senior officers.

Attempts by the police to diffuse the crowd with tear gas, for instance, failed as most of the rounds of ammunition fell to the ground due to a malfunction. In another incident at Nadu Kuppam, more than a dozen probationary sub-inspectors were injured as they were caught off-guard and without safety gear when a mob hurled petrol bombs at them.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today constituted a special investigation team, to be headed by the CBI Director, to look into the prima facie allegations against former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha of trying to influence the probe in the coal scam cases.

A bench headed by Justice M B Lokur said the CBI Director can take assistance of two officers of his choice after duly intimating the apex court.

The bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri, said the panel headed by former CBI special director M L Sharma has prima facie indicted Sinha for allegedly scuttling the coal scam cases.

“Since there has been a change in guard in CBI, we will continue to repose our faith in CBI,” the bench said, while making it clear that it has not expressed its opinion on the writ petition pending before it or the M L Sharma panel report.

The bench said Special Public Prosecutor for coal scam cases, senior advocate R S Cheema, would assist the CBI director and his team on legal issues relating to the matter.

It asked the CBI Director to inform the court on the next date of hearing about the composition of his team and the time needed to complete the probe.

(PTI)