Invented names will not alter reality in Arunachal Pradesh: India

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "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."

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. File | Photo Credit: PTI

India on April 4 rejected China’s renaming of several places in Arunachal Pradesh saying “invented names” will not affect the status of Indian sovereignty over the region. The official response came a day after China issued a list of eleven renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh. 

“This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. 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,” said the Official Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. This is the third attempt by China to rename parts of Arunachal Pradesh. In 2017, China’s Ministry of Civil Aviation had issued a list of six places in Arunachal Pradesh and a similar list of 15 renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh were issued. 

The matter has also drawn attention of the opposition Congress party which has accused Prime Minister Modi of giving a “clean chit to China in June 2020” after the Galwan clashes in East Ladakh that claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian soldiers. “Almost three years later, Chinese forces continue to deny our patrols access to the strategic Depsang Plains to which we previously had unimpeded access. And now the Chinese are attempting to undermine the status quo in Arunachal Pradesh,” said AICC Communications Chief Jairam Ramesh. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has also criticised PM Modi saying, “The country is suffering because of the clean chit that PM Modi gave the Chinese after Galwan.”

“20,000 sq km land China has snatched, changing names of places — Prime Minister is silent. After all why so scared?” said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The April 3 announcement of renaming of eleven places in Arunachal in China came even as India is hosting the King of Bhutan which has announced that China has not occupied any of its territory with Prime Minister Lotay Tshering saying, “there is no intrusion”. The comments from PM Tshering indicated that Bhutan is giving priority to the Chinese position on the border issue which last flared up during the 2018 Doklam crisis.