PM Modi asks Council of Ministers to refrain from India vs Bharat debate

livemint.com:

a renaming could be part of the agenda in the upcoming Special Session of Parliament. While Union Minister Anurag Thakur has called it a “rumour", while attacking the “mindset" of the Opposition for opposing the name ‘Bharat’, there has been no other word.

“The ministers were told that they need to assertively face falsehoods and attacks against issues of faith, to put things in the right context and to rely on the provisions of the Constitution that do not allow denigration of any religion," persons privy to the matter said. He also instructed his ministers that "no minister other than the authorized person should speak on the G-20 meeting." “In the Council of Ministers meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave advice to his ministers, saying that no minister other than the authorised person should speak at the G-20 meeting.

The ministers attending the dinner organized on September 9 should reach the Parliament House complex in their own vehicles and to reach the venue they should board the buses," sources said. India is all set to host the G20 Summit in New Delhi from September 9-10.

World leaders will arrive in New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit. The summit will be hosted at the state-of-the-art Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

Notably, India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1 last year and about 200 meetings related to G20 were organized in 60 cities across the country. (With agency inputs)