Jackie Shroff, Amitabh Bachchan and other Bollywood celebrities have reacted to the ongoing controversy over using ‘Bharat’ instead of ‘India’. The debate spiralled over a G20 dinner invitation which described Droupadi Murmu as ‘President of Bharat’.
Jackie Shroff’s statement
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shared on X a G20 dinner invitation from President Murmu which described her position as ‘President of Bharat’, leading to allegations from the Opposition that the government was trying to change the name of the country from India to Bharat. Now, reacting to the same, Jackie Shroff said, “Earlier, our country was called Bharat right? My name is Jackie, some call me Jocky, and some call me Jaki. People change my name because of that I will not change. Just the name will change, we will not. You people keep changing the country’s name, but don’t forget that you are an Indian.” Jackie along with Dia Mirza attended the ‘Planet India’ campaign event in New Delhi where he spoke on the matter.
Amitabh Bachchan
‘Bharat mata ki jai,” megastar Amitabh Bachchan wrote. He also shared a tricolour emoji with the post.
Kangana Ranaut’s tweet
Kangana took to her Twitter and shared a long note explaining why Bharat is more meaningful than the name India. She wrote, “What is there to love in this name? First of all, they couldn’t pronounce ‘Sindhu’ toh usko bigad ke ‘ Indus’ kar diya. Phir kabhi Hindos kabhi Indos kuch bhi gol mol karke India bana diya.”
“From the time of Mahabharata, all the kingdoms who participated in the Great War of Kurukshetra came under one continent called Bharat so why were they calling us Indu Sindu?? Also the name Bharat is so meaningful, what is the meaning of India ? I know they called Red Indians that because in olden English Indian simply meant a slave, they named us Indians because that was our new identity given to us by British. Even in olden days dictionary Indian’s meaning was mentioned as slave they recently changed it. Also it’s not our name we are Bhartiya not Indian.”
There has been no official word from the government on the issue yet.
India vs Bharat row
The invitations extended by President Draupadi Murmu to heads of state, government, and Chief Ministers of States for an official banquet during the G20 Summit in New Delhi sparked a row as the word ‘India’ was replaced with ‘Bharat’. It led to a storm of reactions with the Opposition alleging that the move was reflective of the BJP being scared of the I.N.D.I.A bloc and the ruling party asserting that there was nothing wrong in using Bharat as it is part of the Constitution. The move also further fuelled the speculation that the issue of changing the name of the country could come up during the five-day special session of Parliament beginning September 18.
For the unversed, the G20 Summit is being held in Delhi on September 9 and 10 under India’s presidency and several heads of state from across the world, including US President Joe Biden, are attending the event.
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