Amid the controversy over changing India’s name to Bharat, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said that any move to replace the name ‘India’ is against the Constitution and it disregards the country itself.
The controversy had erupted after a G20 dinner invitation from President Droupadi Murmu described her position as the ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘President of India’, inviting sharp reaction from the opposition parties. Later, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, in a post on X, shared the official information of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Indonesia, referring to him as the ‘’Prime Minister of Bharat’’. The row came days after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat made a strong pitch for using Bharat instead of India.
CM Vijayan, in a statement, said, “Article 1 of the Constitution itself refers to our nation as ‘India that is Bharat.’ Similarly, the preface of the Constitution begins with the words ‘We the people of India.’ However, what the Centre is attempting now is the removal of the word ‘India’ through a constitutional amendment.”
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) politburo member said the move was part of attempts to sabotage the country’s heterogeneity and urged the public to resist such measures.
“Why this contempt and fear of the word ‘India’? There is a deliberate attempt to erase even the spirit nurtured in children through the Pledge: ‘India is my country; all Indians are my brothers and sisters’,” he claimed.
“Political decisions should never be contrary to the foundational ideals of our nation. This dubious attempt is undemocratic and unconstitutional,” the CM said, urging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre to withdraw from alleged moves to replace the name of the country.
