Amid the India versus Bharat debate, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took a jibe at the BJP-led central government saying he “does not really have a problem with either of the names” since both are used in the Constitution.
Addressing a press conference, Gandhi said, “It (the Constitution) starts with “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”. So, I don’t really see a problem there. Both words are perfectly acceptable.”
“…But I think maybe we irritated the government a little bit because we named our coalition ‘INDIA’. So that got more heated. Now they decided to change the name of the country…I mean, we could always give our coalition a second name as well. But, people act in strange ways,” the Congress leader added.
A political row erupted last week after the invites for the grand G20 dinner called President Droupadi Murmu the ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the usual ‘President of India’. This move led to a speculation that the ruling government may be looking to change the name of the country, triggering a backlash from the opposition who termed it as a “distraction”.
Adding fire to the fuel, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address at the G20 Summit, the nameplate kept in front of him read ‘Bharat’ instead of India.
PM Modi’s message to ministers on India-Bharat row
As the India-Bharat debate started to heat up, PM Modi on September 6 – ahead of the mega G20 Summit – asked his ministerial colleagues to avoid the political row saying that it has been the “country’s ancient name”.
“The ministers were told that they need to assertively face falsehoods and attacks against issues of faith, to put things in the right context, and to rely on the provisions of the Constitution that do not allow the denigration of any religion,” said an official.
While there is a speculation that the idea to change the name of the country could be a part of the legislative agenda in the upcoming special session of Parliament, the government has neither stated its position on the issue nor declared the legislative agenda for the special session yet.
(With inputs from PTI)
