The Evening Wrap: ‘Bharat’ instead of ‘India’ in President invite stirs debate on country’s name

The Congress on September 5 attacked the BJP government over a G20 dinner invite referring to President Droupadi Murmu as “President of Bharat”, accusing the government of being “scared” of the INDIA bloc and diverting from issues such as price rise and “rising joblessness”. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shared a G20 dinner invitation on on X (formerly Twitter) from President Murmu which described her position as “President of Bharat”. Opposition leaders have alleged that the shift to using the name “Bharat” instead of India in English language communication, was a way of preventing the alliance from being identified with the country’s name or could even be a signal from the government that the special session of Parliament to be held between September 18-22 would be about some change in the name of the country. Government sources told The Hindu that all talk of a formal action in the upcoming session of Parliament to change the name of India was “rubbish”. The G20 Summit is being held in the National Capital from September 9 to 10 under India’s presidency and several heads of state from across the world, including U.S. President Joe Biden, are attending the event. Reacting over the ‘India vs Bharat’ row, Congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer on Tuesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is scared of the Opposition alliance INDIA so the BJP is deliberately changing the name of India to Bharat. “They are scared of the INDIA alliance. Our Constitution says ‘India, that is Bharat’, “ Mani Shankar Iyer reacted in Bhopal to reporters’ question on Harnath Singh Yadav’s comment. Earlier, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Harnath Singh Yadav demanded that the word ‘INDIA’ should be removed from the Constitution and only Bharat should be used as the country’s name. Editors Guild urges Manipur govt. to close cases against its president and fact-finding team members The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on September 5 urged the Manipur government to close the cases registered by the State police against its president and the members of a fact-finding team, stating that its report on media coverage of ethnic clashes, was aimed at enabling introspection and reflection on the media’s conduct in such a sensitive situation. Stating that it was disturbed by the registration of First Information Reports (FIRs) against the EGI president and the fact-finding team members who had visited Manipur to study and document media’s coverage of ethnic clashes in the State, the Guild, in a statement said it was shocked by the “intimidatory statements made by the Chief Minister of Manipur N. Biren Singh in response to the report”. The Guild said it had received several representations from civil society as well as the Indian Army raising concerns that the media in Manipur was playing a partisan role in the ongoing ethnic conflict between the majority Meitei community and the Kuki-Chin minority. “The Guild had sent a three-member team to Manipur to examine the media’s reportage in the State as well as the effects of internet shut down. The team met a cross-section of reporters, editors, representatives of the Editors Guild of Manipur, All Manipur Working Journalists Union, civil society activists, public intellectuals, women affected by the violence, tribal spokespersons and the representatives of the security forces operating in Manipur,” it said. The report was released on September 2, 2023. “The Guild is extremely disturbed that rather than respond to the concerns raised in the report in a meaningful way, the State government has registered FIRs invoking multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code. The Guild has already acknowledged and corrected an error that was pointed out regarding a photo caption and we remain open to further discussion,” said the EGI. It said: “However, the Chief Minister’s labelling of the journalists body as ‘anti-State’ and ‘anti-national’ is deeply disturbing, especially given the way the Union government has emphasised the country’s democratic credentials as well as the spirit of freedom of speech at the global stage for the upcoming G20 summit.” India rejects U.N. experts’ concern, calls it ‘unwarranted’, reminds experts of ‘mandate’ India on September 5 rejected the concerns of a team of United Nations experts about the current situation in Manipur saying the report is “unwarranted, presumptive and misleading”. The response came hours after a team of experts under the auspices of the U.N. expressed ‘alarm’ about reports of human rights violations in Manipur. The experts pointed out “inadequate humanitarian response” during the ongoing fight between the Meiteis and the Kukis of Manipur that began in the first week of May and has continued ever since. The Permanent Mission of India completely rejects the news release as it is not only unwarranted, presumptive and misleading but also betrays a complete lack of understanding on the situation in Manipur and the steps taken by government of India to address it,” a statement issued by the Indian Permanent Mission at the U.N. Office in Geneva declared. It reiterated that India was dealing with the situation in Manipur as per its democratic norms while ensuring respect for human rights and said, “the situation in Manipur is peaceful and stable and government of India is committed to take requisite steps to maintain peace and stability.” Nineteen experts led by Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, expressed concern about the evolving situation in Manipur and called upon the government of India to ensure speedy justice for the victims of ethno-communal violence. “It is particularly concerning in that the violence seems to have been preceded and incited by hateful and inflammatory speech that spread online and offline to justify the atrocities committed against the Kuki ethnic minority, particularly women, on account of their ethnicity and religious belief,” a statement from the experts said. They urged the Indian authorities to ensure relief efforts to ensure “robust and timely action to investigate acts of violence and hold perpetrators to account, including public officials who have aided and abetted the incitement of racial and religious hatred and violence.” The Indian response questioned the domain of the U.N. experts in addressing the human rights situation in India and said they should have waited for “inputs from the government of India” before releasing comments for the media explaining, “The Permanent Mission of India hopes that in future, the Special Procedure Mandate holders would be more objective in their assessment, based on the facts, and refrain from commenting on the developments, which have no relevance to the mandate given to them by the council and abide by the established procedure for issuing news releases.” Two held for forging over 2 lakh IDs like Aadhaar, PAN; police flag it as national security issue Two persons have been arrested in Gujarat’s Surat for allegedly forging documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards as well as voter IDs using a website, thereby posing a serious threat to national security, a police official said. The accused were accessing a government database, which is a case of illegal authorisation and a serious issue, the official said on Monday. He said the accused forged around two lakh identity proof documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards and sold them for ₹15 to ₹200 each. Acting on a complaint received from the officials of a private sector bank that some persons got loans processed on the basis of fake documents and defaulted on repayment, six persons were arrested around two weeks back for forgery and cheating, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences) V.K. Parmar said. During interrogation, one of them, identified as Prince Hemant Prasad, said he accessed the website in question using his registered username and password to download forged Aadhaar and PAN cards on payment of ₹15-50 per document, he said. Based on the input, the police launched an investigation into the website. The fake identity cards downloaded from the website by making the payment were used for purposes like getting bank loans sanctioned and purchasing SIM cards, the official said. Somnath Pramodkumar, a resident of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, whose name was linked to a number of mobile numbers present on the website, was arrested recently through technical surveillance, he said. So far, he is suspected to be the mastermind behind the crime, the police said. Another person, Premvirsinh Thakur, a resident of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, on whose name the website was created, was also arrested a couple of days back, the official said. “When questioned, they confessed to having forged around two lakh identity documents in two years. Somnath has studied till Class 5. He got technical help from certain people to carry out the illegal activity. The website was running since the last three years,” he said. “This is a serious national security issue. They are not changing but accessing the government database and that is a case of illegal authorisation,” the official said. It is possible that many more persons are behind this, Parmar said, adding the police have frozen ₹25 lakh in the bank accounts of Pramodkumar and his mother. In Brief: The rupee plunged by 35 paise to close at 83.06 (provisional) against the U.S. dollar on September 5, amid a strong American currency and higher crude oil prices. Foreign fund outflows from the domestic equity markets also weakened the local currency. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 82.78 against the U.S. dollar and hit the lowest level to settle at 83.06 (provisional) against the greenback, registering a fall of 35 paise against its previous close. The rupee has breached the 83-level against the dollar for the fifth time since August 14. On Monday, the rupee had settled at 82.71 against the dollar. The second Earth-bound manoeuvre of the Aditya L-1 mission to study the Sun has been performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. “ISTRAC/ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation,” ISRO said. The manoeuvre was performed in the early hours of September 5 and the new orbit attained is 282 k.m. x 40,225 k.m. Three more manoeuvres are scheduled to take place. The next manoeuvre is scheduled for September 10, 2023, around 02:30 Hrs. IST. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 05 September 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( ‘President of Bharat’ on G20 invite triggers row; govt. sources dismiss talk of name change in upcoming Parliament session as ‘rubbish’ [The Congress on September 5 attacked the BJP government over a G20 dinner invite referring]( to President Droupadi Murmu as “President of Bharat”, accusing the government of being “scared” of the INDIA bloc and diverting from issues such as price rise and “rising joblessness”. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shared a G20 dinner invitation on on X (formerly Twitter) from President Murmu which described her position as “President of Bharat”. Opposition leaders have alleged that the shift to using the name “Bharat” instead of India in English language communication, was a way of preventing the alliance from being identified with the country’s name or could even be a signal from the government that the special session of Parliament to be held between September 18-22 would be about some change in the name of the country. Government sources told The Hindu that all talk of a formal action in the upcoming session of Parliament to change the name of India was “rubbish”. The G20 Summit is being held in the National Capital from September 9 to 10 under India’s presidency and several heads of state from across the world, including U.S. President Joe Biden, are attending the event. Reacting over the ‘India vs Bharat’ row, Congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer on Tuesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is scared of the Opposition alliance INDIA so the BJP is deliberately changing the name of India to Bharat. “They are scared of the INDIA alliance. Our Constitution says ‘India, that is Bharat’, “ Mani Shankar Iyer reacted in Bhopal to reporters’ question on Harnath Singh Yadav’s comment. Earlier, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Harnath Singh Yadav demanded that the word ‘INDIA’ should be removed from the Constitution and only Bharat should be used as the country’s name. Editors Guild urges Manipur govt. to close cases against its president and fact-finding team members [The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on September 5 urged the Manipur government]( to close the cases registered by the State police against its president and the members of a fact-finding team, stating that its report on media coverage of ethnic clashes, was aimed at enabling introspection and reflection on the media’s conduct in such a sensitive situation. Stating that it was disturbed by the registration of First Information Reports (FIRs) against the EGI president and the fact-finding team members who had visited Manipur to study and document media’s coverage of ethnic clashes in the State, the Guild, in a statement said it was shocked by the “intimidatory statements made by the Chief Minister of Manipur N. Biren Singh in response to the report”. The Guild said it had received several representations from civil society as well as the Indian Army raising concerns that the media in Manipur was playing a partisan role in the ongoing ethnic conflict between the majority Meitei community and the Kuki-Chin minority. “The Guild had sent a three-member team to Manipur to examine the media’s reportage in the State as well as the effects of internet shut down. The team met a cross-section of reporters, editors, representatives of the Editors Guild of Manipur, All Manipur Working Journalists Union, civil society activists, public intellectuals, women affected by the violence, tribal spokespersons and the representatives of the security forces operating in Manipur,” it said. The report was released on September 2, 2023. “The Guild is extremely disturbed that rather than respond to the concerns raised in the report in a meaningful way, the State government has registered FIRs invoking multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code. The Guild has already acknowledged and corrected an error that was pointed out regarding a photo caption and we remain open to further discussion,” said the EGI. It said: “However, the Chief Minister’s labelling of the journalists body as ‘anti-State’ and ‘anti-national’ is deeply disturbing, especially given the way the Union government has emphasised the country’s democratic credentials as well as the spirit of freedom of speech at the global stage for the upcoming G20 summit.” India rejects U.N. experts’ concern, calls it ‘unwarranted’, reminds experts of ‘mandate’ [India on September 5 rejected the concerns of a team of United Nations experts]( about the current situation in Manipur saying the report is “unwarranted, presumptive and misleading”. The response came hours after a team of experts under the auspices of the U.N. expressed ‘alarm’ about reports of human rights violations in Manipur. The experts pointed out “inadequate humanitarian response” during the ongoing fight between the Meiteis and the Kukis of Manipur that began in the first week of May and has continued ever since. The Permanent Mission of India completely rejects the news release as it is not only unwarranted, presumptive and misleading but also betrays a complete lack of understanding on the situation in Manipur and the steps taken by government of India to address it,” a statement issued by the Indian Permanent Mission at the U.N. Office in Geneva declared. It reiterated that India was dealing with the situation in Manipur as per its democratic norms while ensuring respect for human rights and said, “the situation in Manipur is peaceful and stable and government of India is committed to take requisite steps to maintain peace and stability.” Nineteen experts led by Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, expressed concern about the evolving situation in Manipur and called upon the government of India to ensure speedy justice for the victims of ethno-communal violence. “It is particularly concerning in that the violence seems to have been preceded and incited by hateful and inflammatory speech that spread online and offline to justify the atrocities committed against the Kuki ethnic minority, particularly women, on account of their ethnicity and religious belief,” a statement from the experts said. They urged the Indian authorities to ensure relief efforts to ensure “robust and timely action to investigate acts of violence and hold perpetrators to account, including public officials who have aided and abetted the incitement of racial and religious hatred and violence.” The Indian response questioned the domain of the U.N. experts in addressing the human rights situation in India and said they should have waited for “inputs from the government of India” before releasing comments for the media explaining, “The Permanent Mission of India hopes that in future, the Special Procedure Mandate holders would be more objective in their assessment, based on the facts, and refrain from commenting on the developments, which have no relevance to the mandate given to them by the council and abide by the established procedure for issuing news releases.” Two held for forging over 2 lakh IDs like Aadhaar, PAN; police flag it as national security issue [Two persons have been arrested in Gujarat’s Surat for allegedly forging documents]( like Aadhaar and PAN cards as well as voter IDs using a website, thereby posing a serious threat to national security, a police official said. The accused were accessing a government database, which is a case of illegal authorisation and a serious issue, the official said on Monday. He said the accused forged around two lakh identity proof documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards and sold them for ₹15 to ₹200 each. Acting on a complaint received from the officials of a private sector bank that some persons got loans processed on the basis of fake documents and defaulted on repayment, six persons were arrested around two weeks back for forgery and cheating, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences) V.K. Parmar said. During interrogation, one of them, identified as Prince Hemant Prasad, said he accessed the website in question using his registered username and password to download forged Aadhaar and PAN cards on payment of ₹15-50 per document, he said. Based on the input, the police launched an investigation into the website. The fake identity cards downloaded from the website by making the payment were used for purposes like getting bank loans sanctioned and purchasing SIM cards, the official said. Somnath Pramodkumar, a resident of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, whose name was linked to a number of mobile numbers present on the website, was arrested recently through technical surveillance, he said. So far, he is suspected to be the mastermind behind the crime, the police said. Another person, Premvirsinh Thakur, a resident of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, on whose name the website was created, was also arrested a couple of days back, the official said. “When questioned, they confessed to having forged around two lakh identity documents in two years. Somnath has studied till Class 5. He got technical help from certain people to carry out the illegal activity. The website was running since the last three years,” he said. “This is a serious national security issue. They are not changing but accessing the government database and that is a case of illegal authorisation,” the official said. It is possible that many more persons are behind this, Parmar said, adding the police have frozen ₹25 lakh in the bank accounts of Pramodkumar and his mother. In Brief: The [rupee plunged by 35 paise to close at 83.06 (provisional) against the U.S. dollar on September 5,]( amid a strong American currency and higher crude oil prices. Foreign fund outflows from the domestic equity markets also weakened the local currency. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 82.78 against the U.S. dollar and hit the lowest level to settle at 83.06 (provisional) against the greenback, registering a fall of 35 paise against its previous close. The rupee has breached the 83-level against the dollar for the fifth time since August 14. On Monday, the rupee had settled at 82.71 against the dollar. [The second Earth-bound manoeuvre of the Aditya L-1 mission to study the Sun]( has been performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. “ISTRAC/ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation,” ISRO said. The manoeuvre was performed in the early hours of September 5 and the new orbit attained is 282 k.m. x 40,225 k.m. Three more manoeuvres are scheduled to take place. The next manoeuvre is scheduled for September 10, 2023, around 02:30 Hrs. IST. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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