'President of Bharat': 'India' has incalculable brand value, hope govt won't dispense with it, says Tharoor

In a post on X, Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said 'Bharat' is one of the country's two official names.

New Delhi: Reacting to the 'President of Bharat' G20 dinner invite, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Tuesday said while there is no constitutional objection to calling India 'Bharat', he hopes the government will not be so foolish to completely dispense with 'India' which has incalculable brand value.

The Congress has alleged that the "Union of States" is under assault by the Narendra Modi government as it claimed that a G20 dinner invite refers to the President as "President of Bharat". In a post on X, Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said 'Bharat' is one of the country's two official names.

"While there is no constitutional objection to calling India 'Bharat', which is one of the country's two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with 'India', which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries," he said. "We should continue to use both words rather than relinquish our claim to a name redolent of history, a name that is recognised around the world," Tharoor said.

• While there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat”, which is one of the country’s two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India”, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries. We should… pic.twitter.com/V6ucaIfWqj

  — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 5, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  While there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat”, which is one of the country’s two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India”, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries. We should… pic.twitter.com/V6ucaIfWqj

  — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 5, 2023

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  While there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat”, which is one of the country’s two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India”, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries. We should… pic.twitter.com/V6ucaIfWqj

  — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 5, 2023

The G20 Summit will held in the national capital from September 9 to 10 under India's presidency and several heads of state from across the world, including US President Joe Biden, are attending the event.