After Rashtrapati Bhawan issued an invitation for a G20 dinner scheduled for September 9 in the name of the President of ‘Bharat’ instead of India, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that be it former prime ministers Manmohan Singh or Indira Gandhi everyone took oath as ‘Main Bharat ka Pradhan Mantri’ not as Prime Minister of India.
“India and Bharat is not a debatable thing…India and Bharat are interchangeable that is the decision of the Supreme Court in 2016. Be it Manmohan Singh or Indira Gandhi everyone took oath as ‘Main Bharat ka Pradhan Mantri’ not as Prime Minister of India,” Assam CM said.
“While Deve Gowda took oath as Prime Minister of India…So this is not a debate,” he added.
Notably, this is the first time that the government has used the ‘Republic of Bharat’ instead of India on an official invitation.
A government booklet on PM Modi’s upcoming visit to Indonesia for the ASEAN-India Summit also refers to him as the Prime Minister of Bharat.
The move, however, has stirred a huge controversy as leaders from Congress and other parties have strongly opposed it, while the ruling dispensation has welcomed the decision. The leaders of the INDIA bloc have claimed that the BJP is nervous about the popularity being garnered by the Opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Article 1 of the Indian Constitution states “Name and territory of the Union.—(1) India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
