“Does India Belong To …”: Arvind Kejriwal’s Attacks BJP Over India Name Change Row
In an all-out attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal dared the ruling dared party to change India’s name and said the name belongs to the 140 crore people of the country. Mr. Kejriwal was addressing a public meeting in poll-bound Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur.
He also took a dig at the BJP asking whether they will change the name again if the Opposition alliance change its name to Bharat or not.
The chief minister was speaking about the speculation doing around in the country that the central government will change India’s name to only Bharat.
“Recently, 28 Opposition parties joined together and formed an alliance and named it INDIA. The BJP people got freaked out and said India’s name will be changed. Does India belong to your father? It belongs to 140 crore people,” Mr Kejriwal said.
“India lives in our hearts. Bharat lives in our heart. Hindustan lives in our heart. We love our Bharat. We love Hindustan. I would like to challenge BJP that they dare change the name of India…,” he added.
He also said the BJP used to run multiple programs under the name of India until last year like Digital India, Startup India, Make in India, Skill India.
I LOVE MY INDIA 🇮🇳
140 करोड़ लोगों का है INDIA🇮🇳
तुम्हारे पिताजी का INDIA🇮🇳 नहीं है
– CM @ArvindKejriwal pic.twitter.com/QWXJUlTv6M
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) September 16, 2023
The speculation about renaming India as Bharat was rampant during the G20 summit when a dinner invitation from the President of India and the nameplate of Prime Minister Modi mentioned “Bharat” instead of the usual “India.” It was also speculated that the government had called a special session of the Indian Parliament starting on September 18 to initiate the formal process of renaming.
However, the house schedule released by the Parliament office does not include this as an item.
