Leading up to the G20 Leaders' Summit scheduled in the national capital, a noteworthy alteration has been made to the nomenclature used on identity cards for Indian officials. Instead of the conventional 'Indian official,' these cards will now prominently feature the designation 'Bharat official.'
This intriguing development transpired following a controversial incident where an invitation to a G20 summit dinner addressed the recipient as the 'President of Bharat.' The incident, which unfolded on Tuesday, not only sparked a significant uproar but also ignited widespread speculation regarding the government's intentions to officially rename India as 'Bharat' during an upcoming special parliamentary session.
In a separate international engagement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to embark on a visit to Indonesia for the 20th ASEAN India Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit (EAS) on the 6th and 7th of September. Preceding his visit, the official documentation for this diplomatic endeavor explicitly referred to him as the 'Prime Minister of Bharat.'
This diplomatic visit comes in response to an invitation extended by the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo.
It is noteworthy that during a recent official visit to South Africa and Greece, spanning from August 22nd to August 25th, the accompanying function notes also consistently designated Prime Minister Modi as the 'Prime Minister of Bharat.'
The controversy surrounding President Droupadi Murmu's G20 dinner invitations has sparked allegations from the opposition, who accuse the Modi government of contemplating a transition from 'India' to 'Bharat' as the official name of the nation.
It is pertinent to mention that Article 1 of the Indian Constitution currently stipulates that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States." However, there is a growing chorus of voices advocating for an amendment to the Constitution to simplify the reference to 'Bharat,' which may potentially be addressed during the forthcoming special parliamentary session scheduled to commence on September 18th.
