Social media erupts over India being renamed as Bharat

Muscat: A controversy erupted in the social media after a G20 dinner invite in the name of 'President of Bharat' went viral. India's Rashtrapati Bhawan sent a G20 invite and addressed the head of state as 'President of Bharat', not India. Social media influencers not only from India but also across the world joined the bandwagon in either supporting it or opposing it.

The G20 dinner invite has subsequently being widely shared on social media, amid heavy criticism from the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) alleging that the government is trying to change the name of the country from 'India' to 'Bharat'.

Earlier in the day, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh claimed that Rashtrapati Bhawan had sent out an invite for a G20 dinner on September 9 in the name of 'President of Bharat' instead of the usual 'President of India'.

“I do not have any official information regarding it, but got to know through the press. This is being done because INDIA is a coalition of Opposition parties. Will they change the name of the country if someone makes a party with its name? This is a country of 140 cr people. What if the INDIA bloc decides to change its name to Bharat after holding a meeting tomorrow? Will they then change the name of Bharat to BJP?” the Delhi CM said.

"Reading this (G20 summit dinner invitation) brings up a lot of questions. Is RSS setting the agenda for the entire nation?" DMK MP Kanimozhi asked while talking to ANI.

Saying that using 'President of Bharat' instead of 'President of India' is unprecedented, she questioned the politics behind the move.

"We've never seen invitations going out in the name of 'President of Bharat', it has always been 'President of India' or 'Prime Minister of India'. Why have they done this now? What is the intention behind it? What is the politics behind it?" the DMK MP questioned.

"It (Bharat) has been in the Constitution all these years but nobody used it. Recently, the RSS chief said that the name of India has to be changed," Kanimozhi added.

Regarding the Centre having been called a special session of Parliament, she said that the Opposition did not know the agenda.

"We don't know why the special session of Parliament has been called. We don't know what the agenda is," Kanimozhi said.

The BJP-led government has announced a ‘Special Session of Parliament’ from Sept 18-22. However, there is no official confirmation yet on what could be the agenda for the 5-day sitting in the special session of Parliament which has been called soon after the G20 Summit. Though it is not the first time that a special session of Parliament has been called, it has created a strong buzz regarding the introduction of some major legislative changes this time. With inputs from ANI