Even as the speculation market turns red-hot over renaming India as Bharat in the upcoming special session of the Indian Parliament starting September 18, we already have the first acknowledgement of the new name. Indian PM Narendra Modi was referred to as the PM Of Bharat in a special invitation ahead of the 20th ASEAN-India Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit.
On the social networking site X (formerly called Twitter), Sambit Patra, a spokesperson of the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), shared this new invitation. PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, from September 6 to September 7, 2023, to attend the ASEAN Summit.
Reactions from Opposition
After the invitation by Indonesia was widely shared on social media by the ruling party members, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh pointed out the irony that the PM of Bharat was going to attend the ASEAN-India Summit.
“Look at how confused the Modi government is! The Prime Minister of Bharat at the 20th ASEAN-India Summit. All this drama just because the Opposition got together and called itself INDIA, Ramesh wrote on X.
On September 6, 2023, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to PM Modi seeking details of the agenda of the special session of the Parliament. “You have convened a special five-day session of the Parliament beginning September 18, 2023, I must point out that this special session has been convened without any consultation with other political parties. None of us have any idea of its agenda,” Gandhi wrote in the letter.
In the letter, she mentioned the nine major issues that the opposition plans to raise during the five-day-long special session. The first agenda is on the current situation of the economy and focuses on increasing the price rise of essential commodities, growing unemployment, rise in inequalities and distress of the MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises).
Secondly, the commitment made by the Government of India to the farmers and farm organisations in regard to MS and other demands raised by them. The third agenda focuses on a Joint Planning Committee to investigate the transactions of the Adani business group in light of all revelations. The continuous agony faced by the people of Manipur and the breakdown of all state machinery and social harmony of the state.
The rise of communal tensions in different states like Haryana is the fifth point of the agenda. The continued occupation of the Indian territory by China and challenges to Indian sovereignty of its borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. Caste census, damages being inflicted on the State-Centre Relations, and the impact of natural disasters caused by extreme floods in some states and drought in other states are the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth points of the agenda.
Insult to Ambedkar?
On September 6, 2023, the Member of Parliament (MP) of Shiv Sena, Sanjay Raut, said that changing India’s name to Bharat amounts to an insult to the Constitution of India framed by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. He said that the country’s constitution had incorporated both India and Bharat and nobody had the problems for all these years with the usage of India, so who has given them the right to make the change now?
The problems started a couple of months ago after the INDIA (Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance) bloc that shook the BJP deeply. “The BJP is now scared even by the name of the country, INDIA, which it has been using for so many of its own schemes. Then what happened suddenly to make this move, and how many more things you will change,” Raut asked.
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