SHILLONG:
Cabinet minister and NPP leader from Garo Hills Rakkam A Sangma on September 6 said he will never support the move of the Centre to rename India as ‘Bharat’.
“Myself no (I will not support)…I feel the name India should continue,” Sangma told reporters.
Urging that the name of India should not be misused for political benefit, the Cabinet minister in-charge of education said, “The opposition alliance has been narrowed down in short form ‘INDIA’. They never read out the whole sentence but they always talk about INDIA. So the name of India has now become a political party which I feel does not look nice. It hurts me also.”
“Therefore, I request the leaders of these political parties, if INDIA nomenclature of this great country could not have been used, it would have been better,” he added.
He further said that the move to rename India may be due to political irritation against the opposition parties.
“Maybe because of political irritation, maybe that is an issue but I feel that the status quo (in regard to the name) of this great nation may continue as it is,” the minister added.