India-Bharat row: Amidst the 'India-Bharat' name change row, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday attacked the Centre and challenged to 'change the Constitution if they have guts'. Speaking to the reporters, the National Conference (NC) leader stated that nobody would support the Centre if it changed the Constitution to change the country's name.
'Nobody can change it...'
In response to the speculation that the government might replace "India" with "Bharat" as the country's name, Abdullah stated that this is not a simple matter. He dares the Central government to bring the issue of changing the country's name to "Bharat" to Parliament if they have the courage to do so.
"Nobody can change it. Do they have a two-thirds majority in the Parliament? If they have, let them change it," he said. "It is not so easy to change the name of the country. To do this, you will have to change the Constitution of the country. If you have the guts, then do it, we will also see who supports you...," Abdullah added.
'Both India and Bharat written in Constitution'
He further said that both India and Bharat were written in the Constitution and India cannot be removed from the Constitution. “It is written in the Constitution that India, which is Bharat, is a Union of states. Both names are in it. People call it India, or Bharat or Hindustan... it is their right. If (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi sahib does not want to use the name India, let him not, but he cannot remove it from the Constitution,” Abdullah said.
A political storm started after a Rashtrapati Bhavan G20 invite mentioned 'President of Bharat' instead of 'President of India' triggering speculations about whether the government was going to change the name of the country.
What gave more fuel to these speculations is a 5-day special session of the Parliament which will begin on September 18. However, there has been no official word from the government on the matter.
The opposition alleged that the government was resorting to “drama” just because they got together and called their bloc INDIA. BJP leaders have strongly supported the move by the government.
