Just as the ‘President of Bharat’ controversy was reaching its peak, there is now a new controversy that has started after BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra shared a document on X showing a note on the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Indonesia for the 20th ASEAN-India Summit and the 18th EAS Summit. The reason for the controversy is the use of words ‘Prime Minister of Bharat’ instead of Prime Minister of India, which is just like the controversy over the use of ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the traditional President of India on the dinner invitation by the President for the G20 members.
Reacting to the note, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote, “Look at how confused the Modi government is! The Prime Minister of Bharat at the 20th ASEAN-India summit. All this drama just because the Opposition got together and called itself INDIA” on the microblogging site X.
This change in the traditional way of writing the post of the Prime Minister and the President has given basis to rumours that the government in the special session of the parliament from September 18-22 is going to officially change the name of the country from India to Bharat. Furthermore, since the government has not given any agenda for the special session, it is only fuelling the speculation. There are also claims that the identity cards of the officials at the G20 summit on September 9 and 10 will now also ‘Bharat-Official’
The opposition has linked the possible move to its 28-party alliance calling itself ‘INDIA’ and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the government, “Just because many opposition parties have formed an alliance and called it INDIA, will the Centre change the name of the country? The country belongs to 140 crore people, not to one party. If the name of the alliance is changed to Bharat, will they change the name of Bharat to BJP?”
Meanwhile several BJP leaders as well as other influential personalities welcomed the use of ‘Bharat’ over India. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted that the wording of the Presidential invite had made him proud. “REPUBLIC OF BHARAT – happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards AMRIT KAAL,” he had posted on X.
BJP President JP Nadda had also hit out at the Congress and accused the party of objecting to every issue “related to the honour and pride of the country”.
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