Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that invites to a G20 summit dinner hosted at the Rashtrapati Bhawan had 'President of Bharat’ inscribed on them instead of the customary 'President of India'.
“So the news is indeed true. Rashtrapati Bhawan has sent out an invite for a G20 dinner on Sept 9th in the name of 'President of Bharat' instead of the usual 'President of India'," Ramesh, who is the grand old party's general secretary and in-charge communications, said in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Ramesh, also a Rajya Sabha member, further said, "Now, Article 1 in the Constitution can read: ‘Bharat, that was India, shall be a Union of States.’ But now even this "Union of States" is under assault."
It is worth mentioning that ever since the 26 Opposition parties formed an umbrella organization named 'INDIA' (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), the ruling BJP has started criticizing the action.
Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha also criticized the Centre's move. "It has just been a few weeks since we named our alliance as INDIA and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started sending invitations with 'Republic of Bharat' instead of 'Republic of India'. Article 1 of the Constitution reads 'India that is Bharat'. Neither you will be able to take India from us nor Bharat," Jha was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
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Even some of the BJP leaders including Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma changed his “X” profile as Chief Minister of Assam, Bharat. Meanwhile, a user of X wondered "How can the government stoop so low that to win elections and oppose the Opposition alliance that they are even ashamed of using the word of our nation that is India?"
"Every time we thought that BJP can’t go any more low they proves us wrong! If they had to use the word Bharat(भारत) then they should have sent the invitations in Hindi only(sic)," the user wrote.
