On the India-Bharat agenda, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) secretary Manuel Badwar said that Bharat is enshrined in the Constitution as is the word India.
“As any good thinking citizen of this country, I have no problem with the word Bharat being use for the country,” Badwar told Highland Post recently. “The only problem I have is the way it is being proposed. The proposal that has come is also based on the Sangh Parivar, whose agenda is just to push a Hindutva agenda. Anything else which is beyond Hindutva is not even taken into account and here lies the dangerous part. If you want to change the name, then change it but don’t criticise everything else that has happened because of the name.”
When the country was formed everybody had a good debate as to what name was to be given to the country by the forefathers who crafted the Constitution who are smart and know what they were doing, Badwar said.
He further said that India is not a name given to the country by the British, as has been stated by many in the pro-Bharat camp, but a name that has existed for thousands of years.
Meanwhile, KHNAM leader Thomas Passah said that the entire Bharat-India argument is unnecessary.
“If we go by Article 1 of the Indian Constitution, it is clear and obvious that there is no need for the Union government to raise this topic at all since our Constitution is very clear on the matter,” he said. “What made the BJP want to change the name now when there is no requirement at all?”
He further said that the BJP government, since 2014, has tried and brought about various changes even to the Constitution and all these changes seem to point to a similar motive that is to redefine the country for the purpose of one religious group only, which endangers the rights of other communities and the secularism of India.
