Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the debate around the country’s name that has erupted on social media following G20 Summit invitations sent in the name of the ‘President of Bharat’ are “panic reactions” and “distraction tactics” by the government.
Barely two weeks before the Parliament meets for the Special Session beginning September 18 till September 22, the agenda of which is still under wraps, the BJP-led government sent out a G20 Summit dinner invitation in the name of the “President of Bharat”, and not the President of India, stirring a massive row with speculations that the country’s name could officially be changed to Bharat.
“I’m perfectly happy with the names that we have in our Constitution. India, that is Bharat, works perfectly well for me,” he said, when asked which name he prefers, during a media conference in Brussels, Belgium on Friday.
The Wayanad MP is on a three-day tour of Europe starting with Belgium, followed by France, Netherlands and Norway.
Gandhi further claimed that Opposition alliance’s name ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’ (I.N.D.I.A.) has “disturbed” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and therefore he wants to change the name of the country.
“But I think these, in a sense to me, are panic reactions. There’s a little bit of fear in the government. These are distraction tactics,” he said.
“We of course came out with the name I.N.D.I.A. for our coalition, and it’s a fantastic idea because it represents exactly who we are, we consider ourselves to be the voice of India and so the word works very well. But it’s obviously disturbed the Prime Minister enough that he wants to change the name of the country, which is absurd, but that’s what it is,” Gandhi said.
“It’s also interesting that every time we raise the issue of Mr Adani and crony capitalism, the Prime Minister comes out with some dramatic new diversion tactic. It’s curious that just after I did a press conference on Adani, this entire diversion was put into place. It’s interesting,” he added.
Gandhi said the idea behind the Europe tour, which he started during the first anniversary of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, was to have an “exchange of ideas” on global issues with European parliamentarians, interact with the Indian diaspora in these regions and also shed light on some of the challenges faced by India.
Meanwhile, in what is seen as a strong message amid the India-Bharat renaming row, at the opening session of the G20 Summit on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi’s name plate read ‘Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘India’.
“Bharat” has also been used in a G20 booklet meant for foreign delegates titled – “Bharat, The Mother Of Democracy”, reports NDTV. “Bharat is the official name of the country. It is mentioned in the Constitution as also in the discussions of 1946-48,” the booklet says.