Oppn parties term move another attempt at politics of polarisation

The recommendation of the National Council of Educational Research and Training(NCERT) panel on social sciences that have suggested in a position paper that India be replaced by "Bharat" as the country's name in school textbooks evoked sharp responses from opposition parties, particularly those from the southern states, which called the move a "political gimmick" and an attempt to distort history.

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To be sure, the proposal is yet to be accepted by the NCERT; it said on Wednesday that the development of the new syllabus and texts "were in the process", which is why various curricular area groups of domain experts had been notified, and at this stage it was too "premature to comment." Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that the move was an election gimmick. "You can see how they are distorting history through textbooks, syllabus... But for us, India and Bharat are equal.

They are purposefully doing this for the elections," he said.

In Karnataka, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said that the word India was used for institutions like the Reserve Bank of India, Indian Administrative Service, and that the "Republic of India" was written on passports.