INDIA Bloc leaders smell a rat as ‘India’ mutates to ‘Bharat’

NEW DELHI,SEPT 5 : The Congress party has planned country-wide foot marches on September 7 to mark the first anniversary of Rahul Gandhi’s “Bharat Jodo Yatra.” Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a fresh controversy broke out over apparent moves by the Centre to change the name of the country to ‘Bharat.’

The leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc launched fresh salvos at the Modi government for its move to rename India to Bharat while BJP supporters hit back saying that the Congress party which organised “Bharat Jodo Yatra” is opposing the name “Bharat.”

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that invites to a G20 summit dinner hosted at the Rashtrapati Bhawan had written ‘President of Bharat’ on them, instead of ‘President of India’.

Rashtrapati Bhawan has sent out an invite for a G20 dinner on Sept 9th in the name of ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the usual ‘President of India’.

Now, Article 1 in the Constitution can read: “Bharat, that was India, shall be a Union of States.”…

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 5, 2023

“Rashtrapati Bhawan has sent out an invite for a G20 dinner on Sept 9th in the name of ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the usual ‘President of India’,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Ramesh further said, “Now, Article 1 in the Constitution can read: “Bharat, that was India, shall be a Union of States. But now even this “Union of States” is under assault.”

Senior journalist Suhasini Haidar responded to Jairam Ramesh by saying, “Hon’ble MP should be aware that India, that is Bharat is already in the Constitution.”

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader M K Stalin ridiculed the saffron party in power saying, “BJP promised to TRANSFORM India, but all we got is a name change after 9 years.”

He said that after non-BJP forces united against the fascist BJP regime by aptly naming their alliance INDIA, the BJP has chosen to change the name of the country to Bharat.

“Seems like the BJP is rattled by a single term called India because they recognise the strength of unity within the opposition. During the elections, ‘India’ will chase BJP out!” he affirmed.

Earlier on Tuesday, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-led by Mohan Bhagwat wants to change the Constitution of the country by ‘removing’ the word ‘India’ with Bharat, a report said.

“Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar wrote in the constitution–“India That Is Bharat”. But Modi and RSS who hate Babasaheb want to change the constitution. Why do Bhagwat and Modi hate Babasaheb so much?” Sanjay Singh said in his post on ‘X’.

This came after Mohan Bhagwat had earlier this month had said that people should use the name “Bharat” instead of India, and urged people to inculcate the habit, the report added.

The reaction of social media users to the new controversy has been mixed. A Supreme Court lawyer and BJP supporter Shashank Shekhar Jha slammed the Congress party on platform ‘X’ saying, “Party which organised Bharat Jodo Yatra is now opposing the name ‘Bharat.'”

One Pawan Yadav questioned, “How can the government stoop so low that to win elections and oppose the opposition alliance they are even ashamed of using the word of our nation that is India?”

However, Shoaib Daniyal, political editor of Scroll.in had this to say: “All the ha ha hee hees at Modi over this name change is fine.

But this has a dark side: BJP’s narrow politics over past decade is weakening the idea of the Union.

Even something core as Union’s name can now be changed on a whim to onstensibly weaken Opposition pre-election.”

-PTI