Amid the outrage in India over the way the governments in BJP ruled states are changing the Muslims name of the cities and tourist spots across the country, reports are emerged that the neighbouring country China has changed the names of almost 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh that was deplored by India.
According to a report published in Jagran, a Hindi Daily, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released a list of 11 places of Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday whose names were replaced with Chinese names that include two plain land areas, two residential areas, five mountainous areas and two rivers. Quoting a report from China’s official newspaper the Global Times, it said that the Provincial Council of Chinese Government has named the southern part of Tibet as Jangnan.
It is said that this is the third such attempt made by the Chinese government during the last 6 years. It was in the year 2017 when a list of names pertaining to six places in Arunachal Pradesh was released. Similarly, another list of 15 places was released in 2021 that were replaced with Chinese names. However, India rejected both these lists and registered strong protest against the Chinese provocative move. India has always maintained that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inextricable part of India and the Chinese move to claim over Indian territory is ill-motivated.
While reacting strongly over China’s unilateral move, the Ministry of External Affairs said that this is not the first time that the Chinese government has made such an attempt. However, we reject it outright. The ministry said that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India. Changing the name will not change this reality.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi released a statement condemning the Chinese move. “This is not the first time that China tried to rename the places in Arunachal Pradesh. We reject this outright. Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality [Sic] …”
