Vol. 66 No. 314 | WEDNESDAY | SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 | 19 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper KAREENA ON HER OTT DEBUT COMMENT The Game of the ‘Name’ ABHINANDAN PANDEY A BJP MP has said that it is important to deconstruct the colonial edifice in the march to Amrit Kaal. Before we carry out such an exercise, we need to examine the historical roots of the three popular words that refer to this part of subcontinent – Bharat, India and Hindustan. If we delve into history and mythology, for that matter, the name ‘Bharat’ can be retraced to Mahabharata, composed roughly around 2000 years ago. Historically, what was referred  as Bharat in to mythology is difficult to ascertain. It is still a matter of scholarly debate, for the geography that it points to is roughly from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east and up to the Malwa region in the south. What is noteworthy is that the word Bharat, as encompassing the entire Indian sub-continent, has never been used prior to the late 19th century. In fact, the origin of the word India is a bit older, for it comes from Greek references to the region they identified with the river Indus. One of the earliest works in Indian history is by the Greek historian Megasthenes, who was an ambassador to the Mauryan court, and is called Indica. The British, for the first time, started using the name India, legally and officially after they unified the sub-continent under their rule. CONTD. ON NATION I had to get my A-game forward to work with Vijay and Jaideep in Jaane Jaan EDIT THE DECLINE AND FALL OF MAYAWATI OIL SURGES AS SUPPLY CUTS ARE EXTENDED Crude oil prices jumped after Saudi and Russia extended their supply curbs until December 2023 0 Sunrise : 06:24 am Sunset : 06:59 pm AT 76, WE WANT TO RENAME MOTHER Invite to G20 heads emanates from President of Bharat as Oppn seethes with anger CHUCK DE INDIA OUR BUREAU / NEW DELHI The world over the country is known as India but the G-20 dinner invite sent on September 9 by President Droupadi Murmu describes her as "President of Bharat." The perceptible shift in nomenclature and emphasis, as the country prepares to host US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other top world leaders, has ignited a political bonfire and may change the nature of public discourse in the run-up to the Assembly polls. While on a mundane level it is all about BJP’s political gambit and sparring with the Opposition formulation -- which carries a seductive acronym I.N.D.I.A -- on a more elevated level it raises questions about the constitutionality and legality of such renaming, whenever it happens. The Opposition chose to see the move through a narrow prism as an attempt to usurp the acronym I.N.D.I.A and pit it against BHARAT which was sure to strike a chord with the man on the street, and was perhaps the first sign of frayed nerves in the BJP leadership. However, analyst said the BJP has a larger game plan of ‘ khand Bharat’ and this A was just a baby step in that direction. The idea, it is understood, was floated two days ago when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat pitched for calling ‘India’ ‘Bharat’ while speaking at an event organised by Sakal Jain Samaj in Guwahati. Urging people to inculcate the habit, Bhagwat had said the name Bharat was anchored in ancient history and it must be given its due. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party asserted that there was nothing wrong in using the term Bharat as it is part of the Constitution. Sources close to the leadership said more clarity on the use of the word ‘Bharat’ will emanate in a resolution to be adopted in the 5-day special Parliament session from September 18, making it clear the that a paradigm shift is CONTD. ON NATION likely . The renaming of India is “just the beginning,” BJP leader CP Joshi told a TV channel, without elaborating. T Art 52 leaves no doubt I need a helpline, can I call Sehwag? PILs WERE REJECTED he Supreme Court of India in 2016 and 2020 dismissed two separate public interest litigations (PILs) seeking a change of name from India to Bharat. Then CJI TS Thakur, while dismissing the PILs, said: “Bharat or India? You want to call it Bharat, go right ahead. Someone wants to call it India, let them call it India.” Likewise, in 2020, then CJI SA Bobade had said: “Bharat and India are both names given in the Constitution. India is already called ‘Bharat’ in the Constitution.” Bharat Mata ki jai URVI MAHAJANI / MUMBAI AMENDMENT NEEDED I f the government decides to amend the Constitution and have only Bharat as the official name, it would have to introduce a Bill to amend Article 1 of the Constitution. Article 368 allows the Constitution to be amended through either a simple majority amendment or a special majority amendment. CONTD. ON NATION A PM OF BHARAT, NOW head of the G20 Leaders' Summit in the national capital, the identity cards of Indian officials will now read 'Bharat official' as opposed to Indian official. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Indonesia for the 20th Asean India Summit and 18th East Asia Summit on September 6-7. A day ahead of his departure, the function notes of his visit have referred to him as 'Prime Minister of Bharat'. During his recent visit to South Africa and Greece from August 22-25, the function notes also referred to him as 'Prime Minister of Bharat'. Pawar lobs quota Accused had the intent to rape in Centre’s court Article 1 of the Constitution states “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” In other words, the Constitution recognises both 'India' and 'Bharat' as official names for the country . However, retired justice of the Bombay High Court, SC Dharmadhikari, draws attention to Article 52, which specifically says: “There shall be a President of India”. So, the G20 dinner invitation sent by President Droupadi Murmu needs to refer to the hostess as “The President of India” and not as “The President of Bharat.” “The distinction is very subtle, but it's very important,” said Justice (retd) Dharmadhikari. He explained the distinction thus: Article 1 talks about the name and territory of the country whereas Article 52 talks , about the title of the office of the President. CONTD. ON NATION THE FP AIR HOSTESS MURDER AISHWARYA IYER / MUMBAI Calls for removal of Maratha quota cap and suggests hiking it by 15-16% FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI WHAT IS IN A NAME? WHY NOT BJP? J ust because opposition parties have formed an alliance and called it INDIA, will the Centre change the name of the country? The country belongs to 140 crore people, not to one party. If the name of the alliance is changed to Bharat, will they change the name of Bharat to BJP? – Arvind Kejriwal RENAME TAGORE I heard that they are changing the name. The invites in the name of the President say Bharat. What's new in this? We say India in English and Bharat in Hindi. But the world knows the country as India. What has happened suddenly that the country's name will be changed? Will the name of  kabi thakur  (Rabindranath Tagore) also be changed – Mamata Banrejee AFTER NINE YRS A fter non-BJP forces united to dethrone the fascist BJP regime and aptly named their alliance #INDIA, the BJP wants to replace 'India' with 'Bharat.' BJP promised to TRANSFORM India, but all we got is a name change after 9 years! – DMK chief M K STALIN BIG B LAST WORD A one-line post by megastar Amitabh Bachchan on X said: Bharat Mata Ki Jai NCP supremo Sharad Pawar lobbed the Maratha quota issue into the Centre’s court on Tuesday pitching for the re, moval of the 50 per cent cap on reservation and increasing it by 15-16 per cent, for the accommodation of aspiring sections of society like the Maratha community  He was ad. dressing a press conference at Jalgaon before his public rally   . Pawar’s suggestion came in response to a query on the demands being made by some leaders to accommodate Marathas in the existing OBC quota. “Some people say that making more people (communities) beneficiaries of the OBC (other backward As India announced its ODI World Cup 2023 squad, amid reports of the government considering changing the country's name from India to ‘Bharat,’ cricket veteran Virender Sehwag said that now our players are Team Bharat, not Team India. Virender Sehwag even tagged BCCI Secretary Jay Shah and said that our player should wear a jersey which has the word “Bharat" embossed on it. class) quota is injustice to the poor people of the (existing) OBC quota. This cannot be ignored,” Sharad Pawar said, adding, “The option is for the Centre to make a parliamentary amendment to the existing 50 per cent cap, increasing it by another 15-16 per cent.” There should be no difference between the OBC and other communities, Pawar said. As for the gauntlet thrown by his nephew and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to the opposition to prove the allegations that the orders for the lathicharge on protesters were given from Mumbai, Sharad Pawar demanded that the government clearly state who had ordered the lathi charge. CONTD. ON NATION A local court in Andheri on Tuesday remanded a 40-yearold cleaner arrested for the murder of an air hostess to police custody for three days. The accused, Vikram Atval, a housekeeper and a resident of Tunga village of Chandivali, Powai, confessed in court that he had intended to rape the victim but could not do so as she fought him off. Atval had allegedly then slit the throat of the victim. The matter had come to light at 11 pm on Sunday after the victim's friends found her dead near the bathroom after forcing open the door to the apartment when there was no response to their knocks. The police traced the killer after about 14 hours, during which they questioned 45 people. On Monday police arrest, ed Atval, who worked for an agency involved in providing cleaning services for households. Police found blood on the clothes of the accused but the weapon used in the murder is FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI The Securities and Exchange Board of India will introduce one-hour trade settlements by the end of this fiscal, in the run up to making such processes instantaneous, Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said on Tuesday . Faster settlements are optional and investors can opt out, Buch clarified, amid con- cerns raised by certain foreign portfolio investors on the shortening of the settlement cycles citing forex-related worries. The markets regulator has adopted a roadmap towards realising its aim of making trade settlements instantaneous, Buch told media persons. “From one day to one hour to instantaneous is the roadmap,” she said. CONTD. ON NATION yet to be traced. Atval confessed that on Friday he had a “spat” with the victim, Rupal Ogrey who , “yelled” at him for not doing his job properly . “The accused went to the victim’s house with an intention to rape her and carried a sharp object in his pocket,” a senior police officer said. “Atval pushed the victim to ground, but she fought him off. This was obvious from the scratch marks all over the body of the accused,” according to the police CONTD. ON NATION officer. 10% OF MHADA LOTTERY WINNERS CEDE HOMES were 1,20,144 eligible applications. Meanwhile, MHADA Vice President Almost 10% of the lucky winners of the and Chief  Executive Officer Sanjeev Maharashtra Housing and Area Devel- Jaiswal has said that the winners who opment Authority (MHADA) lottery had submitted acceptance letters, have have surrendered the homes they won received their provisional offer letters in less than a month ago, underscoring the record time, as against the 10 months to point that government homes aren’t af- the 1.5-year period the process took earlifordable anymore. er. However, what remains unaddressed  This year, the Mumbai Board of the is the high and unaffordable prices of MHADA offered 4,082 tenements for sale the supposedly ‘affordable’ homes. Even through its lottery draw. Surthe BJP MLA from Badnapur, prisingly not even one applica, Narayan Kuche, who won two tion was received for four of homes SPECIAL ed, hasand was also waitlistthe 4,082 homes and the allotbeen unable to purment process was initiated for just 4,078 chase MHADA’s costliest home, as he is units.   these 4,078 allottees, so far, 398 unable to arrange a home loan for the Of winners have surrendered their chance purpose – the home being referenced is to purchase a MHADA home. Seventy the one at Crescent Tower, Tardeo, costothers have yet to either accept or sur- ing Rs 7.58 crore. render their claims, according to data acOn May 24, The Free Press Journal cessed by The Free Press Journal. These had reported about the issue of affordwere the statistics available as on Sep- ability of these homes. tember 4. Take for instance, a 553 sq-ft flat at D N   Monday 3,515 provisional offer let- Nagar, Andheri West, for the low-income On , ters were issued online by the MHADA. group, priced at more than Rs 1.61 crore. The housing lottery draw was held on Only those with an annual family inAugust 14. For 4,082 houses available in come in the range of Rs 9 lakh or more CONTD. ON NATION this edition of the lottery draw, there are eligible to apply . ATEEQ SHAIKH/ MUMBAI 1-hr settlement of trade by fiscal end THE FPJ Shah Rukh Khan with his daughter Suhana Khan at Sri Venkateshwara Swamy temple in Tirupati, where they offered prayers ahead of the release of his film ‘Jawan’ on Tuesday –PTI LAST WORD Says Gyaneshwar Singh should not have been part of inquiry in Sameer Wankhede case Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh could not have been part of the enquiry team set up to probe alleged procedural lapses by IRS officer Sameer Wankhede in connection with the Cordelia cruise drugs case, as he gave the latter instructions regarding the case, the Central Administrative Tribunal has held. After the case was lodged, Singh also gave Wankhede the plan of action, said the tri- BULLETIN GAIL ED IS ARRESTED T he CBI has arrested an KB Singh, Executive Director (Projects) of GAIL, in connection with the alleged Rs50 lakh case in which money changed hands to favour some contractors in gas pipeline projects, officials said on Tuesday. Four others have also been arrested, including the director of Vadodara-based Advance Infrastructures Surender Kumar, they said. It is alleged that the bribe was paid for favouring the company in two GAIL pipeline projects — Srikakulam to Angul and Vijaypur to Auraiya. BYPOLLS IN SEVEN SEATS V oting took place for byelections in seven assembly seats in six states, which hold significance as they precede the Assembly elections later this year and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and are being seen as a litmus test for the INDIA bloc that has resolved to contest elections together “as far as possible”. K L RAHUL IS IN WC SQUAD I ndia on Tuesday announced their final 15-man squad for the upcoming ODI World Cup, with Rohit Sharma as the captain and Hardik Pandya as the vicecaptain. The team will have seven batsmen, four bowlers and four all-rounders. The squad also includes wicketkeeper batsman KL Rahul, whose fitness has been under the scanner. TAILPIECE Tribunal rules against NCB Deputy DG FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI SEHWAG UPBEAT 0 31 c. 28 c. bunal's Chairman Justice Ranjit More and member Anand Mathur in their order of August 21. “Respondent No. 4 (Singh), in our opinion, being actively involved in the investigation could not have been the part of SET, which was constituted to hold an enquiry for the alleged procedural lapses on the part of officials during the seizure and follow up action in connection with the aforesaid crime,” the tribunal ruled. The Centre and the NCB shall give Wankhede personal hearing before taking any action against him based on the report, as the findings of the enquiry team are preliminary in nature, the tribunal said. Wankhede informed the Bombay High Court of the CAT order on Tuesday A division . bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and Rajesh Patil was hearing the officer’s petition seeking to quash a case of extortion and bribery registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Wankhede and four others had demanded Rs25 crore bribe from actor Shah Rukh Khan for not framing his son Aryan following the alleged seizure of drugs from Cordelia cruise ship in 2021, according to the CBI case. Aryan Khan spent nearly a month in jail before being granted bail. Wankhede was the NCB’s zonal director at the time of the alleged drug bust. The bench said Wankhede could file an affidavit placing the CAT order on record if he wishes to and placed the matter for hearing on Wednesday . The CAT, however, took note of the NCB contention that the SET report was preliminary in nature and that an independent decision would be taken by the Centre and NCB regarding action to be taken against Wankhede. Jill Biden tests Covid+ WASHINGTON U S First Lady Dr Jill Biden on Monday tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing “mild symptoms”, the White House said. President Joe Biden has tested negative. Jill Biden, 72, was to visit New Delhi along with her husband for the G20 summit. However, that visit has now been put on hold. The development has also hit her plans to begin teaching the fall semester at Northern Virginia Community College on Tuesday Jill Biden is work. ing with the school to “ensure her classes are covered by a substitute”, according to Vanessa Valdivia, the first lady’s spokesperson. The First Lady’s diagnosis comes amid renewed focus on Covid-19, with a new variant, BA.2.86, capturing the attention of scientists. The variant is highly mutated but has so far only been detected in a small number of people globally . Nonetheless, “it doesn’t look good … in terms of the virus’ nonstop evolution”, said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Research Translational Institute, according to media reports. CONTD. ON NATION