Mayawati urges SC to take suo motu note of 'shallow politics' over Bharat, INDIA

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to take cognisance of "shallow politics" being done on the IndiaBharat debate by the BJP as well as opposition parties. She urged the SC to "prohibit" all such organisations, parties and alliances formed using the country's name, adding it should "disallow" any party or front from tampering with the Constitution (over the country's name).

The BSP supremo's statement came a day after invitations to G20 delegates for a dinner surfaced online in the name of the ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘President of India’, triggering speculations on whether the government was looking to drop 'India' as the country's name. Mayawati said it was not appropriate to "tamper" with the constitutional name of the country.

She added that the truth is the opposition itself has handed over the BJP an opportunity to tamper with the Constitution over the country's name. The BSP chief further alleged that it could be a "joint scheme" of the ruling and opposition parties to make it "India versus Bharat" battle before the elections and thus sidelining the real issues of poverty, inflation as well as unemployment.


She said that while the BJP-ruled Centre should have itself moved the Supreme Court or brought in a law that prohibited the use of the name, however, they chose to resort to "shallow politics" over the subject which is against public interest.

"Therefore, in such a situation, our party wants that the Supreme Court take cognisance of the issue and ban all such organisations, parties and alliances which are formed around the country's name or the country's pride will suffer," Mayawati said.