Public discourse on Bharat; ‘A case of headless chicken’
President Droupadi Murmu paid floral tributes to Dr S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India, on his birth anniversary at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, September 5: President Droupadi Murmu’s invitations to heads of states for official dinner at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of the G20 Summit sent the country on a tizzy sifting the Bharat versus India discourse. The shrill, top sources said, was noted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with “surprise”.
Murmu’s invitation mentioned her as President of Bharat, and thereafter the Congress, as well as other Opposition parties apparently jumped the gun to draw a conclusion that there is an impending move to drop India as a name of the country from Article 1 of the Constitution, which says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”.
“The PMO called the Ministry of Law and Justice to enquire about the source of the speculation, checking if anyone in the government has floated the idea. It was conveyed by the Ministry that there is no such idea in consideration at any level in the department of the legislative affairs,” a top ranking official told The Raisina Hills.
It has been reliably learnt that the top officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice spent checking literature to see if President Murmu mentioning “President of Bharat” should be interpreted in the manner as is being done in the Opposition camp and also the media.
“Bharat and India exist as names of the country, and President is technically correct to address herself as President of Bharat on the basis of the Article 1 of the Constitution. This is the choice of the President that she opted for Bharat in place of India. To draw a conclusion from her dinner invitation letter is surely a case of the people behaving like headless chicken,” said another official.
While the Congress led the charge against the BJP, accusing the Narendra Modi government for further resorting to assault the idea of the “Union of States, as well as federal structure of the country”, the leaders of the ruling party also jumped in the fray to counter the allegations of the Opposition by basing their arguments that the rivals have ideological issues with the country being called “Bharat”.
In the absence of any clarifications from the government, it’s a field day for all to stoke speculations for the likely agenda of the special session of parliament, commencing from September 16 for five days. “At least, on the official level, there is nothing to support the public discourse and claims being made by political actors, as well as the media,” added the official.
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