Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday asked a “flustered” BJP whether it would change the name of Bharat if the opposition alliance INDIA rechristens itself ‘Bharat’, amid controversy over G20 dinner invites purportedly sent on behalf of the ‘President of Bharat’.
Another AAP leader, Raghav Chadha, echoed similar views and asserted that “our national identity” is not “BJP’s personal property.”
“The BJP’s recent move to change the reference from ‘President of India’ to ‘President of Bharat’ on official G20 summit invitations has raised eyebrows and ignited a public debate. How can the BJP strike down ‘INDIA’? The country doesn’t belong to a political party, it belongs to 135 crore Indians. Our national identity is not the BJP’s personal property that it can modify on whims and fancies, Judega Bharat Jeetega INDIA,” he said in a post on X.
Several BJP leaders in the past have raised demands for changing the name ‘India’ to ‘Bharat’.
The use of ‘President of Bharat’ in place of the traditional ‘President of India’ in an official invite to foreign leaders attending the G20 summit has sparked a flurry of political reactions. While opposition leaders have slammed the move and linked it to their 28-party alliance naming itself INDIA, the BJP has questioned why some parties “object to every issue related to the honour and pride of the country”.
