Ministry of External Affairs slammed China for renaming various locations in Arunachal Pradesh. The MEA asserted that assigning new names would not alter the fact that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.
"China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, the MEA said in a statement.
The statement affirmed that Arunachal Pradesh will continue to be an integral and inalienable part of India.
"We firmly reject such attempts. Assigning invented names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India,’’ said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Tuesday.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday, had slammed China after it came out with another list of new names for places in Arunachal Pradesh within days after he dismissed Beijing's claims over the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
"If I change the name of your house today, will it become mine? India’s Arunachal Pradesh, was, is and will always be our state. There is no impact when names are changed,’’ said Dr Jaishankar.
Meanwhile, angst was expressed by other political leaders as well.
"My request to the Indian government is that we should give a list of 60 geographical names of areas around Tibet in China," Assam’s Chief Minister, Hemanta Biswa Sarma said.
Similarly, Union Minister, Kiran Rijuju said that India has rejected such activities.
It was last week that the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released 30 additional names for the region as the fourth list of standardized geographical names in 'Zangnan', the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh.
China has been calling the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet and laying its claim over this 90,000 sq km area, which India has always asserted to be an integral part of the country. Dr Jaishankar said that changing names will not alter the reality.
This is the fourth time this month China spoke about its claim over Arunachal Pradesh.
Beijing said it has lodged a diplomatic protest with India over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Arunachal Pradesh on March 9 reiterating its claim over the area.
China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet, routinely objects to the Indian leaders' visits to the state to highlight its claims.
Beijing has also named the area as Zangnan.
