SEPTEMBER 5, 2023
AAP MP Raghav Chadha.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party amid the controversy over Rashtrapati Bhawan’s G20 dinner invite bearing ‘President of Bharat’.
“We might consider changing the name of our alliance to BHARAT in the next meeting. Meanwhile the BJP should now start thinking of a new name for the country”, Chadha posted on social media platform X.
The G20 dinner invite has triggered speculations about a legislation being tabled in the upcoming special session of parliament to rename ‘India’ as ‘Bharat’. Several opposition parties including Congress, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, who are members of the I.N.D.I.A alliance have opposed the move.
Chadha’s boss Arvind Kejriwal too hit out at the BJP over speculated renaming of the country’s name. “I have no official information that this (a name change) is happening. Just because many opposition parties have formed an alliance and called it INDIA, will the Centre change the name of the country? The country belongs to 140 crore people, not to one party. If the name of the alliance is changed to Bharat, will they change the name of Bharat to BJP”, the Delhi chief minister said.
Congress leaders including Jairam Ramesh, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor have slammed the government. “The Hindu name is also given by foreign countries. I think the PM himself is afraid of the name India. Since the day INDIA named alliance was formed PM Modi’s hatred toward the name India has increased”, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told news agency ANI.
However, the BJP has welcomed the move, calling it a ‘civilization march’. “Republic of Bharat – happy and proud that our civilization is marching ahead boldly towards Amrit Kaal”, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on social media platform X.
