Addressing the concluding day of the two-day national executive of BJP’s Mahila Morcha in Guwahati, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Sunday slammed the Congress for using the word ‘INDIA’ as the acronym for the opposition bloc Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, claiming that the Congress uses India and Bharat as per its political convenience.
The Assam chief minister called the opposition leaders “the leaders of duplicates” and said that the Congress grabbed the Gandhi surname at first and then they took up the name INDIA for their alliance.
“When the time to gather votes comes, the Congress people conduct Bharat Jodo Yatra. When the Karnataka elections ended, they became INDIA. They say that now we are INDIA…I told them that they were the leaders of duplicates. First, Gandhi ji attained freedom for India. Then you grabbed the Gandhi surname and all of you became duplicate Gandhis…The first scam in India was this ‘title’ scam…They want to become INDIA by grabbing the country,” Sarma said.
“If a dacoit takes up Gandhi surname tomorrow, will he become Sadhu? You sinned by taking up the name INDIA because you never did anything that would bring glory to India…You don’t have the right to take the name ‘India’, let alone take the name ‘Bharat’…I have a humble request, at least Rahul Gandhi should let go of the surname ‘Gandhi’. That too is a duplicate title,” he added.
An invitation for a G20 dinner sent out by President Droupadi Murmu in her capacity as “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India” triggered a controversy last week.
In a recent development, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the Modi government at the Centre saying he “does not really have a problem with either of the names” but he thought the Opposition alliance “irritated the government a little bit” because they named their coalition ‘INDIA’.
“…But I think maybe we irritated the government a little bit because we named our coalition ‘INDIA’. So that got more heated. Now they decided to change the name of the country…I mean, we could always give our coalition a second name as well. But, people act in strange ways,” the Congress leader said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Updated: 10 Sep 2023, 10:03 PM IST
