In a move seemingly driven by concerns over the INDIA alliance, the Modi government has reignited the INDIA vs “Bharat” debate for political gain, according to opposition party leaders on Tuesday.
Departing from established norms, the Modi government has sent dinner invitations to G20 leaders with the inscription ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the usual ‘President of India.’
The senior Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh, was the first to point out this anomaly. In a fresh critique of the Modi government, he remarked, “It appears that the news is indeed accurate. Rashtrapati Bhawan has issued an invitation for a G20 dinner on September 9th under the name ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the usual ‘President of India’ (sic).”
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Taking a swipe at the BJP-led Union government, the Congress leader continued, “While Article 1 of the Constitution may state, ‘Bharat, that was India, shall be a Union of States,’ even this ‘Union of States’ is now under threat.”
Tehseen Poonawala, a Congress supporter and political activist who also serves as an advocate at the Supreme Court, stated on X, “Article 1 of the Indian Constitution clearly states that ‘India that is Bharat shall be a union of states.’ There is no question of renaming India as only Bharat.
“This simply cannot be done – it goes against the Basic Structure of our Constitution and is impossible to change. Such a move would lead to further complications in the North East and South India. Dropping the name INDIA is impossible!” opined Tehseen.
In a scathing critique of the Modi government, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked, “If an alliance of some parties were to become India, would they change the name of the country? The country belongs to 1.4 billion people, not just one party.
“Let’s assume that the India alliance rebrands itself as Bharat, would they then rename Bharat as BJP?… What kind of joke is this?… BJP seems to be worried that their vote count will decrease, so they want to change the name of Bharat,” quipped Kejriwal on X.
RJD leader Manoj Jha, referring to the INDIA alliance’s tagline, ‘Judega Bharat, Jeetega INDIA,’ said, “You [Modi government] cannot take Bharat or INDIA away from us.
“It has been only a few weeks since we named our alliance INDIA, and the BJP has already started sending invitations with ‘Republic of Bharat’ instead of ‘Republic of India’,” added Jha.
It’s worth noting that Assam Chief Minister Himnata Sharma was the first to introduce the idea of using Bharat as a contrasting political slogan against INDIA.
Although the Constitution refers to the country as “India, that is Bharat,” there is growing clamor for a name change during a special session of Parliament. Following Sharma, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Bansal called for the removal of ‘India’ from the Constitution, arguing that it symbolizes colonial slavery.
Recently, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has also expressed support for the name change, urging citizens to embrace “Bharat” instead of “India,” stating that India is a Hindu Rashtra and has been known as Bharat for ages.”
