Last week, a political controversy broke out because President Murmu’s name was misspelt on the invitations for the G20 dinner as “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India.”
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, poked fun at the BJP-led federal government on Sunday amid the India vs. Bharat issue by saying that he “does not really have a problem with either of the names” because both are used in the Constitution.
Gandhi remarked, “It (the Constitution) starts with ‘India, that is Bharat, must be a Union of States’ in his remarks to a press conference. In that case, I don’t really see a problem. The use of either word is allowed.
Also see: The United Nations uses Turkiye as an example in the “Bharat vs. India” dispute
“However, I believe that the administration was a little displeased with us because we called our coalition ‘INDIA. Thus, things became more heated. Now they’ve chosen to alter the nation’s name.We could always give our alliance a another name, I suppose. But people behave strangely,” the Congressman continued.
VIDEO | "The Constitution actually uses both names. It 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… pic.twitter.com/gLbewRa59G
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 10, 2023
The invitations to the gala G20 dinner referred to President Droupadi Murmu as the “President of Bharat” rather than the traditional “President of India,” which sparked a political controversy last week. This action sparked rumours that the nation’s name might be about to be changed by the current administration, which angered the opposition and was dubbed a “distraction” by them.
The nameplate put in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech at the G20 Summit read “Bharat” rather than “India,” adding fuel to the flames.
Ministers’ letter from PM Modi on the India-Bharat dispute
PM Modi encouraged his ministerial colleagues to avoid the political dispute on September 6 – before of the historic G20 Summit – claiming that it has been the “country’s ancient name” as the India-Bharat controversy began to flare up.
“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,” a representative said.
The concept of changing the country’s name is rumoured to be on the legislative agenda for the upcoming special session of Parliament, but neither the government’s opinion on the matter nor the special session’s legislative agenda have been announced.
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