BSP supremo Mayawati addresses a press conference, in Lucknow on Sept. 6, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Wednesday said that the Opposition coalition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) offered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an opportunity to tamper with the Constitution over the issue of the country’s name and further alleged an internal collusion between the INDIA bloc and the ruling party.
“Opposition by using the name INDIA offered the BJP opportunity to tamper with the Constitution over the issue of the country’s name. Also the controversy seems a conspiracy and well-planned strategy of the BJP and the opposition. This should be condemned,” said Ms. Mayawati, in an statement.
The former four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance over the issue and hoped the apex court would ban all political parties and fronts from carrying the country’s name.
“BJP and their National Democratic Alliance [NDA] or their Union government should have gone to the Supreme Court over the misuse of name ‘INDIA’ or made a law banning using of name. But not doing so and indulging in narrow politics is wrong and anti-people. I hope the Supreme Court will take suo motu cognisance over the issue and would ban all political parties and fronts from carrying the country’s name,” she added.
She maintained Bharat and India are well-known and dignified constitutional names of the country.
Ms. Mayawati said the people love, respect, and have an affinity with the Constitution whose drafting Bhimrao Ambedkar oversaw. “To amend it or tamper with its spirit will be inappropriate and unjust,” she said at a press conference.
The Constitution’s Article 1 says, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
A G-20 invitation bearing phrase ‘President of Bharat’ led to a uproar on Tuesday with the Opposition claiming that the move highlights the BJP’s fear of the INDIA bloc.