As the five-day special session of the Parliament is scheduled to be held from September 18, the agenda of the session continues to remain a suspense, though the opposition parties are expecting a discussion on one-nation-one-election bill.
Now, there is a suspicion that the Narendra Modi government wants to amend the Constitution for change of the country’s name from “India” to “Bharat.”
It was evident from the invitations to the G20 summit issued from the President’s office, which reportedly described Droupadi Murmu as the “President of Bharat” instead of the usual “President of India.”
The demand to rename India as Bharat by amending the Constitution has intensified. Earlier in the monsoon session of Parliament, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Bansal demanded the removal of 'India' from the Constitution, arguing that it symbolises colonial slavery.
His sentiment was supported by BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav, who too said that a constitutional amendment should be brought in to replace "India" with "Bharat".
Reacting immediately to the move, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to X (formerly Twitter) and slammed the move from the NDA government.
“So the news is indeed true. 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',” Ramesh wrote.
The Congress leader 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.”
Article 1 of the Indian Constitution reads: "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States."
Earlier in the day, Assam CM Himanta Sarma posted on X and proclaimed India as "Republic of Bharat".
"Republic of Bharat- happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards Amrit Kaal," he said in a post on X.
The matter came to light three days after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat made an appeal to refer to the country as Bharat.
Reacting to Congress’ comments, BJP’s national president J P Nadda said why does the grand old party objects to every work done for the honour and glory of this country.
“Why do doing political tours in the name of Bharat Jodo hate the slogan of Bharat Mata Ki Jai? It is clear that Congress neither respects the country, nor the Constitution, nor the constitutional institutions. It only aims to praise one family (Gandhis). The entire country knows very well the anti-national and anti-constitutional intentions of Congress," Nadda said.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chug also said: “Why such a fuss over writing and speaking ‘Bharat’? Why are Congress leaders so assumed of calling themselves ‘Bharatiya’? Sometimes you create a ruckus over ‘Vande Mataram, other times you have issues with ‘Rashtravad’."
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday said the BJP's recent move to change the reference from 'President of India' to 'President of Bharat' on official G20 summit invitations has raised eyebrows and ignited a public debate.
“How can the BJP strike down 'INDIA'? The country doesn't belong to a political party; it belongs to 135 crore Indians. Our national identity is not the BJP's personal property that it can modify on whims and fancies," Chadha said on X.