'India has incalculable brand value': Shashi Tharoor on buzz that Centre may rename country as Bharat

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said he hopes the Centre won't strike off the country's official name 'India' which he said has 'incalculable brand value built up over centuries'. "While there is no constitutional objection to calling India "Bharat", which is one of the country's two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with "India", which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries," Tharoor said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 

The former central minister said that the government should continue to use both words "rather than relinquish its claim to a name redolent of history, a name that is recognised around the world".

Tharoor's reaction comes amid reports that the Centre may bring a bill in the five-day special session of Parliament called from September 18-22. The buzz was triggered after an invite for a G20 summit dinner with 'President of Bharat' inscribed on it surfaced on social media. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called attention to the invite, saying, "So the news is indeed true. Rashtrapati Bhawan has sent out an invite for a G20 dinner on Sept 9th in the name of 'President of Bharat' instead of the usual 'President of India' (sic)."

The Opposition parties, including Congress and AAP, have made it clear that they will not support any such move to change the country's name to Bharat. But some have backed the idea of changing the country's name, even though the government has not made anything official as yet.

Former cricketer Virender Sehwag said that he had always believed a name should be one that instilled pride in people. "We are Bhartiyas, India is a name given by the British & it has been long overdue to get our original name ‘Bharat’ back officially," he said. The cricketer also urged the BCCI and its secretary Jay Shah "to ensure that this World Cup, our players have Bharat on our chest".  

Currently, the country has two official names - India and Bharat. Article 1 of the Constitution says: "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States."

However, Congress MP Manish Tewari in a tweet referred to Article 52 of the Constitution of India, which says: "There shall be a President of INDIA."  It can't get more explicit than this, he said. However, Karthik Reddy, a social media user, replied by saying that the Hindi version of the Constitution says: "Bharat Ka Rashtrapati."