Mamata Banerjee questions saffron government's plan to rename India to Bharat
Chief minister of Bengal opposes move, says it is unnecessary and divisive
On Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee voiced her unhappiness over the rumored potential that the saffron government might rename India to Bharat. She questioned the timing and purpose of the alleged plan.
In her speech at a state government function in the afternoon honoring teachers, the chief minister of Bengal brought up the subject.
"I heard that they are changing India's name today. She was responding to a G20 dinner invitation from President Droupadi Murmu, which described her role as "President of Bharat." "The card that has been printed in the name of the honorable President, for a G20 lunch or dinner, mentions 'Bharat'," she added. The national Opposition claimed that the Narendra Modi administration at the Center intended to refer to the nation simply as Bharat, which sparked a heated national discussion.
"Arrey, we refer to India as Bharat, so what's new there? Indian Constitution is how we refer to India in English. Bharat ka Samvidhan is what they say in Hindi, according to Mamata, a key figure in the Indian nationwide Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), a nationwide coalition of anti-BJP groups.
Due to the invitation card's widespread social media sharing, INDIA voters said that the action reflected the saffron regime's fear of the bloc. Bharat is a part of the Constitution, according to the BJP, thus using it is acceptable.
Even we speak Bharat nonetheless, the Trinamul Congress leader said.
"Nothing new has to be done. The whole world recognizes (us) as being from India, she said.
Mamata has consistently been one of the saffron ecosystem's most vocal opponents of politically driven efforts to rename important sites, rewrite history, and alter popular culture in order to build a Sangh parivar-approved account of the subcontinent's past.
What occurred so abruptly that even the country needed a name change? Tuesday, Mamata made a query.
"What's next, the name of Rabindranath Tagore?" Added she.
Mamata regularly criticizes efforts to deify historical leaders who are revered in the saffron environment, such as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Deendayal Upadhyaya, sometimes at the expense of more popular people who adhere to inclusive and secular ideologies, such as Tagore.
The chief minister said, "They are changing names anyway, of universities, of significant historic landmarks... changing history itself."
Most educational institutions in the nation used to teach a "Leftist" interpretation of Indian history that, among other things, exalts the Mughal era, which is one of the Sangh parivar's pet peeves.
