Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday asked why the BJP has triggered the India-Bharat row and accused it of trying to break the country. He asserted that the Congress is engaged in uniting Bharat.

If the BJP hates the word ‘India’, then why it has named schemes like ‘Startup India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Make in India’, asked Kharge.

He was speaking at ‘Bharose Ka Sammelan’, an event organised here in poll-bound Chhattisgarh by the Congress government, at Thekwa village of Rajnandgaon district. Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should see the work of the Bhupesh Baghel government in the state to know how it can be done in five years.

“We have formed an alliance INDIA for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and now BJP is saying the country’s name India should be changed to Bharat. There is both India and Bharat in the Constitution itself. Then why are they triggering a dispute over it,” Kharge said.

Kharge said the BJP claims that the Congress is against calling India Bharat.

“We love Bharat. Rahul ji took out a foot march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and named the yatra as Bharat Jodo. We are engaged in uniting Bharat and you (BJP) are engaged in breaking it,” he said.

Assembly elections in the Congress-governed Chhattisgarh are due by the year-end.

“If you (BJP) hate ‘India’, then why Modi ji has given words like ‘Startup India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Khelo India’ and ‘Make in India’? We have to fight against this mentality (of BJP),” he said.

The name change controversy erupted after invitations for a G20 dinner in New Delhi sent out by Droupadi Murmu, describing her position as ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘President of India’, triggered a massive furore on Tuesday. The opposition alleged the Modi government was planning to drop India and stay with just Bharat as the country’s name.

Hitting out at the PM, Kharge said, “He is not even looking at violence-hit Manipur. On the other hand, the G20 summit is being held (in Delhi) where every pole has his photos (posters of PM). Neither photographs of his ministers nor Mahatma Gandhi or Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru feature on these posters. Does everything belong to him? Hailing the state government, he said, “There was a BJP government in Chhattisgarh for 15 years. Modi was in Gujarat for 13.5 years as CM and now 10 years as PM but the condition of Gujarat remains the same. Why did you not do the work which the Congress government has done in 5 years in Chhattisgarh? It is because you (PM) don't care for the poor rather you care for the rich like Ambani and Adani”.

Referring to the state, he said it is not Modi’s Gujarat model but the model of the Congress, Bhupesh Baghel and his cabinet. “Modi ji should see the work of Baghel government then only he can realise how work can be done in five years,” he added.

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