The map was released by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources during the celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week on Monday in Deqing county, Zhejiang province, as per China Daily newspaper.

Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Several political leaders expressed concern. 

Congress

The Congress on Tuesday said these are inalienable parts of India which no such illegal representation or arbitrarily invented map by the “habitual offender” can change.

The party also urged the government to use the upcoming G20 Summit to expose China’s transgressions into Indian territory at the global stage.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge said Indian territories including Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin are indistinguishable and inalienable part of India and “no arbitrarily invented Chinese map can change that”.

In a post on X, he said, “China is a habitual offender when it comes to renaming and redrawing maps of territories, belonging to other countries. The Indian National Congress takes strong objection to any such illegal representation or renaming of India’s territories.”

Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said that the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi‘s claims in Ladakh were true and that if the Central government has courage then it should do a surgical strike on the South-East Asian country.

Earlier this month, during his visit to Ladakh, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Centre, saying that its claim that not an inch of Indian land was taken by China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) troops “is not true”.

The Congress MP claimed the locals, too, contend that Indian territory was intruded upon and taken by the Chinese troops, adding that it was a matter of concern.

“The locals here are concerned about China taking our land. They have said that the Chinese troops took away their grazing land. However, the PM says not an inch of land was taken away. This is not true, you can ask anyone here,” Rahul had said.

Tibetan Govt in exile

Tenzin Lekshay, Spokesperson and Additional Secretary, DIIR, Central Tibetan Administration said that China has been showing such distorted maps since many years, showing Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China.

“This is not the first time China is doing that. China for the last so many years has been repeatedly showing distorted maps which shows Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China,” he said.

Lekshay further said, “In fact they used to say that the whole Arunachal is the part of Southern Tibet but this claim is baseless and not based on truth…This is part of sovereign India since independence, there are Indian people and administration and government.”

(With agency inputs)

Updated: 29 Aug 2023, 04:11 PM IST