Opinion: Cheerio India, Namaste Bharat
NDTV
The special session of parliament beginning Monday has generated much speculation. The media has been approaching the subject like the proverbial blind men and an elephant. An all-party pre-session meet to discuss the agenda is scheduled on Sunday. However, with the Narendra Modi regime's penchant for setting the pigeon among cats, conjectures persist.
September 18, the day the session starts, is the anniversary of the day in 1949 when the Constituent Assembly of India adopted clause 1 of Article 1: "India that is Bharat shall be a Union of States". As many as 222 amendments were moved before this was adopted. Amendment number 130, moved by HV Kamath, supported by Seth Govind Das and Kamlapati Tripathi, debated whether Dr BR Ambedkar's formulation of "India that is Bharat" ought to be reworded as "Bharat that is India".
Seth Govind Das cited Chinese traveller Huen Tsang, who had referred to "Bharat". Tripathi traced the name Bharat to Rig Ved. After animated discussion the amendment was negated. September 18, 1949 was a Sunday. The House met thereafter on October 6 to continue formulating the Constitution of India.
