Source: X
Guwahati, Sep 7: Invites sent by Indian President Droupadi Murmu calling herself "President of Bharat" – the Hindi name for the country – instead of the traditional “President of India” for a dinner on the sidelines of the G20 summit has sparked rumours that the government is planning to rename the nation.
While a section of politicians have endorsed rebranding the name of the country by changing their social media bio, another lot have expressed disappointment as they consider it an assault on the constitution.
BJP leader and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma in a post on X said, "REPUBLIC OF BHARAT - happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards AMRIT KAAL." He later said that India and Bharat is not a debatable thing and can be used interchangeably.
"India and Bharat is not a debatable thing...India and Bharat are interchangeable that is the decision of the Supreme Court in 2016...Be it Manmohan Singh or Indira Gandhi everyone took oath as 'Main Bharat ka Pradhan Mantri' not as Prime Minister of India...While Deve Gowda took oath as Prime Minister of India...So this is not a debate..." Sarma said in a post.
On the other hand, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called the move an assault on the constitution. “Now, Article 1 in the Constitution can read: ‘Bharat, that was India, shall be a Union of States.’ But now even this ‘Union of States’ is under assault…” Ramesh posted on X.
The renaming of the country has stirred a political debate after the opposition alliance-- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) decided to fight against the NDA government in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, changing the name would not just require a green signal in the Parliament. It will come up with other expenses like rebranding and marketing.
In a report published by Outlook India, the whopping cost of renaming India to Bharat can be over Rs 14,000 crore. The calculation is made on the basis of a model by South Africa-based intellectual property lawyer and blogger Darren Olivier. Olivier used the model to calculate the cost of renaming Swaziland to Eswatini in 2018. The model compares the renaming of a nation to rebranding exercises at large companies, said reports.
The model estimates that the average cost of marketing for a large company is around 6% of its total revenue, while the cost of rebranding might be as high as 10% of the overall marketing expenditure.
India's total receipts in 2022-23 were Rs 23.84 trillion. According to Olivier's model, India will have to pay Rs 14,034 crore to rename itself to Bharat, mentioned the report.