Shantaram Naik, Congress MP from Goa, on Friday sought a Constitution amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha to call the country simply 'Bharat' and not 'India'.
His private member bill seeks to amend the Preamble and Article 1 of the Constitution of India to drop India and use 'Bharat'. It says the words 'India, that is Bharat' in sub-clause 1 of Article be replaced with just 'Bharat'.
The grounds for changing the name of the country into simply 'Bharat' are many but, more than the grounds or reasons, it is the sense of patriotism that the name generates and electrifies the people of this country that is relevant, Naik noted.
The Congress MP quoted a lyric from the 1965 film Sikandar-E-Aazam to buttress his case: "Jahan daal daal par sone ki chidiyan karti hai basera, woh Bharat desh hai mera."
What are your views on the debate? Should India be called just 'Bharat'?
