GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 6th Sept. An old video of the former chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, is becoming viral online amid a debate about the use of the word “President of Bharat” on official G20 Summit invitations. The video is a clip from a previous NDTV interview in which Lalu Yadav differentiates India and Bharat.
The RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) president is seen brushing his teeth with a Neem twig and drawing a comparison between India and Bharat in the short clip. When the interviewer asks if he is able to get Neem twigs in Delhi, he says that it is difficult because Delhi falls under ‘India’ but Patna comes under ‘Bharat’.
Speculation that India would be renamed Bharat began after a G20 dinner invitation received on President Droupadi Murmu’s behalf referred to her as President of Bharat rather than India. ‘Bharat’ was also used in a G20 brochure titled “Bharat, The Mother Of Democracy” for international delegations. In addition, another document came to light this morning that refers to Narendra Modi as the “Prime Minister of Bharat.”
This action has heightened political tensions and increased the prospect of a name change during the special session of Parliament scheduled for September 18-22. The government’s failure to announce an agenda for the special session has only fueled suspicion.
Meanwhile, the opposition has connected the possible action to its 28-party ‘INDIA’ alliance. Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, 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 questioned on Tuesday.
However, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) embraced the “Bharat” name and accused the opposition of being anti-national and anti-constitutional. According to them, the term “Bharat” appears in Article 1 of the Constitution, which states that “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
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