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India or Bharat: What does our Constitution say? Explained

2023-09-09 00:00:00.0 铸币报-政治原网页

The Congress party on Tuesday alleged that the "Union of States" is under assault in the Modi government as it claimed that a G20 dinner invite refers to the President as "President of Bharat".

However, if we take a look in the In the Constitution of India it is clearly mentioned that under the Name and territory of the Union.—(1) India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.

Article 1 of the Constitution:

India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. The States and the territories thereof shall be as specified in the First Schedule.

The territory of India shall comprise —

the territories of the States;

the Union territories specified in the First Schedule; and

such other territories as may be acquired.

According to the Article 1 of the Constitution states that “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States." India's Constitution recognises both'India' and 'Bharat' as the official name of the country but now the opposition parties are alleging that government may remove the name 'India' and recognise ' Bharat' as the official name of the country.

Now as a special session of Parliament will be held, the Modi-led government may decide to make 'Bharat' the official name of the country, however they will require to introduce a bill in the Parliament to amend the Article 1 of the Constitution.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said while there is no constitutional objection to calling India 'Bharat', he hopes the government will not be so foolish to completely dispense with 'India' which has incalculable brand value.

In a post on X, Congress MP Manish Tewari said, "Article 52 - Constitution of India. There shall be a President of INDIA. Can't get more explicit than this - Can it?

"So the news is indeed true. Rashtrapati Bhawan has sent out an invite for a G20 dinner on Sept 9th in the name of 'President of Bharat' instead of the usual 'President of India'," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

"Now, Article 1 in the Constitution can read: Bharat, that was India, shall be a Union of States. But now even this Union of States is under assault," Ramesh alleged.