New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) : With G20 dinner invites being sent out in the name of ‘President of Bharat’, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday 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”.
The Congress MP also claimed it was Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah who had objected to the name ‘India’ since it implied that “our country was the successor state to the British Raj and Pakistan a seceding state”.
Invitations for a G20 dinner have been sent out by President Droupadi Murmu describing her position as ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘President of India’, triggering a massive furore with the opposition alleging that the Modi government is planning to drop India and stay with just Bharat as the country’s name.