Launching a scathing attack at the centre over the “reports” of China renaming 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said that China has renamed the country’s areas for the third time.
Taking to Twitter, Kharge said, “For the third time, China has dared to “rename” our areas in Arunachal Pradesh. April 21, 2017 — 6 places, December 30, 2021 — 15 places, April 3, 2023 — 11 places”. “Arunachal Pradesh is and will remain an integral part of India. After Galvan, the country is facing the consequences of Modi ji giving a clean chit to China,” he added.
This comes after China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs came up with the names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it referred to as “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet.”
China released names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese characters, Tibetan and pinyin according to the rules on geographical names issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet, Global Times reported.
The ministry announced the names of 11 places on Sunday and also gave precise coordinates, including two residential areas, five mountain peaks, two rivers and two other areas. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs also listed the category of places’ names and their subordinate administrative districts, as per the news report.
According to a Global Times report, this is the third batch of geographical names announced by the ministry in Arunachal Pradesh. As per the news report, the first batch of the standardized names of six places was issued in 2017, and the second batch of 15 places was released in 2021.
Earlier, in December last year, the Indian government said that it has seen reports of China attempting to rename some places in Arunachal Pradesh “in its own language” and asserted that the border state has been and will always be an integral part of India.”