Invitations to a G20 banquet, sent by Indian President Draupadi Murmu, from the same Bharatiya Janata Party as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mobilized local coverage on Tuesday.
Instead of the President of the Republic of India, as usual, the person inviting is the “President of Bharath”, another name for the country and also the one chosen for Modi’s party (below).
NDTV channel highlighted the “big buzz” it caused. India Today, the “calls in Parliament to rename the country”.
The two authors of the book “Time for Bharat”, it’s time for Bharat, released nine months ago, published an article in Business Today defending the constitutional change of the name. The constitution speaks of “India, that is Bharat”. It would be just Bharat.
In the little press space it gets, in the case of Mint, the opposition questions it. The problem is not only that it is the name of the party in power for a decade, but that the name of the recently launched opposition front is INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance).
BLITZ
The American press, starting coverage, listed more problems. In Bloomberg, “Modi turns G20 summit into a not-so-subtle kickoff for the election.” Opening the text:
“On buses and rickshaws, sidewalks and bridges, billboards and market walls: these days it’s hard to walk in New Delhi without seeing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face. The deluge of advertising is part of a marketing campaign for the G20 .”
Then in the New York Times, “the ruling party is making the most of the summit, covering all the walls.” The “G20 logo itself features a lotus, the symbol of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.”
Opening the text, samples of the “advertising blitz” such as “a hundred national monuments were lit up with the logo, for people to post selfies.” What’s more, “across cities across India, Modi’s radiant face adorns giant billboards.”
With a “Carnival feel”, events across the country “allowed Modi to begin campaigning” for the April election.
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