Amidst the ongoing ‘Bharat-India’ controversy, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Friday challenged the BJP government to first ‘change’ the Constitution if they have ‘guts’.
Talking to reporters in Srinagar, Omar said nobody can change the name of the country without amending the Constitution for which two-thirds majority is required in the Lok Sabha. Do they have this majority, asked Omar.
“It is not so easy to change the name of the country. To do this, you will have to change the Constitution of the country. If you have the guts, then do it, we will also see who supports your move,” Omar said.
The NC leader said that the Constitution already has India and Bharat written on it. People are free to call the country by any of these names.
Replying to a question about the G20 meeting, Omar said representatives of member countries have come and will see a small corner of Delhi during the summit and return. G20 meetings were earlier held in some other member countries and will rotate in future. The government has spent a sum of Rs 4,200 crore for the facelift of Delhi for the event and that is good for the people of the national capital.
Speculations have gained ground that the Centre might change the name of the country to Bharat from India after the Rashtrapati Bhawan sent out invitations for a G20 dinner on 9 September on behalf of the ‘President of Bharat’.
Earlier in the morning, MP and National Conference (NC) patriarch Dr. Farooq Abdullah also commented on the issue of “Bharat-India” and said, “Read the Constitution first; it is mentioned there that Bharat and India are one. Pointing at media persons, he said you create controversy out of nothing.
“If you see the prime minister’s aircraft, both India and Bharat are written on it as well. I don’t see any difference between the two, if anyone sees any difference, then they know that, I do not. They are both the same thing. It is the media which creates controversy,” he said.
On the question of ”One nation, one election proposal”, he said let the government put it before Parliament, “We will see what we will do”.