The government could change the country’s name from India to Bharat, sparking a furious backlash, especially as it comes days after opposition group INDIA said it would contest the election “as unitedly as possible”.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Sunday criticized the government for changing the country’s name to Bharat. At an event in France, he was asked if “…this change to a more popular name…does it make sense or derive value?” In a video posted by the Congress on X (formerly Twitter), Mr Gandhi appears to play down talk of the name change – calling both “perfectly acceptable” – before smiling and snapping. “Well… the Constitution actually uses both names, doesn’t it? The line in the Constitution I started with is “India, ie. Bharat, becomes a Union of States”. So I really don’t see the problem. . both are perfectly acceptable.”
Mr. Gandhi then pauses and continues with a smile: “But I think we may have irritated the government a bit because we called our union INDIA and that set them all on fire. And now they decided to change the name of the country.”
The leader of the opposition then answers the question: “What do you think about that?”
In a graphic shared at the Congress, Mr. Gandhi of Sciences PO University in Paris also said, “The most important thing is that the voice of the people of all these states should be heard loud and clear and not a single voice should be crushed. or scared.”
