'RBI will be Reserve Bank of Bharat; IIM grads will become BHIM grads': Buzz on renaming India triggers a memefest

Social media users had a field day on Tuesday amid buzz of government bringing a resolution to rename India as Bharat during Parliament's upcoming special session, which is scheduled from September 18-22.

It all started with the G20 dinner invite that refered to the President as ''President of Bharat'', which sparked off speculations about a possible attempt to change the name of the country from 'India' to 'Bharat'.

Alok Jain, a finfluencer, said on X (formerly Twitter) that "BRICS just lost its only vowel".

Jain said lot of companies with Bharat in their names will not have to rebrand as a possible name change will give them an instant recall.

"India Vix will be renamed to Bharat Vix," quipped another X user about the country's stock market volatility index.

"One benefit of Bharat is that you will have to scroll less to select your country in a drop down list. In the Alphabetical order of Countries Bharat would be now at the 20th spot. It’s a tribute to the G20 presidency," posted X user Gabbar about the apparent benefits of changing country's name.

"big day for bits pilani students as all iits will now be called bits after india's name change to bharat," joked another X user.

Meanwhile, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday alleged that the BJP wants to change 'India' into 'Bharat', and said the saffron party was rattled by the term 'INDIA', the name of the opposition bloc.

''After non-BJP forces united to dethrone the fascist BJP regime and aptly named their alliance #INDIA, now the BJP wants to change 'India' for 'Bharat.' BJP promised to TRANSFORM India, but all we got is a name change after 9 years!,'' he said in a post on micro-blogging site X.

''Seems like the BJP is rattled by a single term called 'India' because they recognise the strength of unity within the opposition. During the elections, 'India' will chase BJP out of power! #IndiaStaysIndia,'' he said. Meanwhile, Stalin's sister and DMK Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi shared an image of the purported invite on her X handle.

''In a rather unprecedented move, an official invite from the President of India reads 'President of Bharat' instead of India. Makes us wonder what could be the possible politics or intention behind this action,'' she said.