Amid speculations of renaming India as Bharat, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said on Wednesday, “If the move is linked to the Opposition naming its alliance INDIA, then we will change our name, but won’t allow the nation to suffer.”

Omar’s remarks came in response to Rashtrapati Bhawan sending out invites for a G20 dinner on 9 September in the name of ‘President of Bharat’, instead of the usual ‘President of India’.

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Speaking to reporters, Omar said both ‘India and Bharat’ are mentioned in our Constitution. However, he suggested that if the ruling dispensation does not want to designate the country as ‘India’, they can use ‘Bharat’, but the name India should not be erased from the Constitution of the country as several institutions in the country use the word India in their names. Even the prime minister’s plane, on which he today went to Indonesia, also has both names written on it: India and Bharat.

“How many names will you change? Will you change the names of ISRO that sent rockets to the moon and space, the State Bank of India, IIT, and IIM,” he asked.

In a jibe he said; “If it is just because the Opposition has named itself INDIA, then we will change our name. We don’t want to cause loss to the nation. If we get the slightest hint that it is because of the name INDIA Alliance, we will change our name. But how many names will you change”, he asked.

Omar further responded to the speculations that the upcoming five-day special session of Parliament might have a discussion on One Nation One Election. “There is no agenda yet for the session. We are unable to figure out the purpose behind it.”

“I have seen at least four or five committees constituted in the past that proposed the same. If the object behind is to ease the process then no one has any objection. But we won’t allow anyone to use it as a weapon against regional parties,” he said.

Meanwhile, another former chief minister and PDP chief, Mehbooba Mufti has also slammed the BJP government on the issue of name change of India as Bharat. She wrote on twitter; “BJP’s aversion to India’s foundational principle of unity in diversity has touched a new low. By reducing India’s many names from Hindustan & India to now only Bharat shows its pettiness & intolerance. For the first time in India’s post-Independence history, a party with a brute majority is treating the entire country as its fiefdom”.