President of Bharat: G20 Dinner Invite triggers political slugfest

A G20 dinner invitation from President Droupadi Murmu describing her position as 'President of Bharat' triggered a fresh debate on Tuesday, with the opposition alleging that the government is planning to drop India and stay with just Bharat as the country's name. Lending credence to the speculation, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan shared on X a G20 dinner invitation from the president for Saturday at Bharat Mandapam, the venue for the G20 summit of world leaders. Sharing a picture of his invite, Pradhan used the hashtag '#PresidentOfBharat' and said, "Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak Jaya He, Bharat Bhagya Vidhata".

Besides the first line of the national anthem, the post in Hindi also used the words "Jai Ho". The invitation, which was widely shared on social media, led to a storm of reactions with the opposition alleging that the move was reflective of the BJP being scared of the INDIA bloc and the ruling party asserting that there was nothing wrong in using Bharat as it is part of the Constitution.The opposition parties have cried foul over the invite. The Congress party has even gone on to accuse the ruling dispensation of trying to distort history out of fear of the newly formed I.N.D.I.A alliance.
 Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said that "our country's name is Bharat and there should be no doubt about it".Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was among the first to cheer the big change. "REPUBLIC OF BHARAT -  happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards AMRIT KAAL," he posted on X.

जन गण मन अधिनायक जय हे, भारत भाग्य विधाता

जय हो #PresidentOfBharat pic.twitter.com/C4RmR0uGGS

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) September 5, 2023

The minister's comments come against the backdrop of Opposition parties alleging that the government was trying to change the name of the country from India to Bharat. A G20 dinner invite in the name of 'President of Bharat' has gone viral on social media.Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar today said no one has the right to change the country's name. "I don't understand why the ruling party is perturbed over a name related to the country," the NCP chief told reporters at a press conference in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district.The controversy over the G20 dinner invite comes ahead of the special session of parliament, that has already triggered immense speculations as to what will be on agenda.