BENGALURU: The Karnataka government is drafting a legal notice to e-commerce giant Amazon over the use of Kannada flag colours and state emblem in a design for a bikini sold by the company’s Canada arm.
Kannada and culture minister Arvind Limbavali said the case has been referred to chief secretary P Ravi Kumar and DPAR secretary to initiate action against Amazon for its “insensitive” act of misusing the state emblem to market a product.
“The company has not yet given any explanation.
It’s highly irresponsible,” he said.
While saying it’s possible that an individual or team in the company may have committed the “sadistic act”, he said Amazon must rectify the situation.
“If the company does not withdraw the product or ignores the issue, we’ll recommend cancellation of its licence,” said Limbavali.
In the controversy surrounding Google over its search throwing up Kannada as the “ugliest language”, the government has dropped legal action and given a letter of condemnation.
“With the company voluntarily apologising, we decided to drop legal action but sent a letter condemning it,” said Limbavali.