India vs Bharat row started after President Droupadi Murmu’s invitation to G20 leaders.
Amid a controversy over the use of ‘President of Bharat’ on official G20 Summit invitations, an old video of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is going viral online.
In the clip, Lalu Yadav is seen cleaning his teeth with a Neem twig and drawing a comparison between India and Bharat. When the interviewer asks if he is able to get Neem twigs in Delhi, the RDJ (Rashtriya Janata Dal) chief replies that it is difficult because Delhi falls under ‘India’ while Patna comes under ‘Bharat’.
Watch the video below:
INDIA और भारत में अंतर
लालू यादव मोदी जी के फूल सपोर्ट में pic.twitter.com/YPnVNKuGJ7— Raja Babu (@GaurangBhardwa1) September 6, 2023
Speculation that India may be renamed to Bharat started doing the rounds when a G20 dinner invitation sent on behalf of President Droupadi Murmu referred to her as President of Bharat, instead of India. ‘Bharat’ has also been used in a G20 booklet meant for foreign delegates titled – “Bharat, The Mother Of Democracy”. Additionally, another document has come to light today morning that refers to Narendra Modi as the ‘Prime Minister of Bharat’.
Now, this move has sent political temperatures soaring and raised the possibility of a name change in the special session of Parliament from September 18-22. The fact that the government has not announced any agenda for the special session has only added to the speculation.
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Meanwhile, the opposition has linked the possible move to its 28-party alliance calling itself ‘INDIA’. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has even questioned what the Centre will do if the bloc decides to rename itself ‘Bharat’.
“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,” the AAP chief asked on Tuesday.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, however, welcomed the “Bharat” nomenclature and accused the Opposition of being anti-national and anti-constitutional. They said the term “Bharat” is also in Article 1 of the Constitution, which says: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
