Itanagar: Chief Minister Pema Khandu has vehemently criticized China’s recent attempts to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh, labelling it as “another gimmick” from the neighbouring country.
China recently released a fourth list of 30 new names for various places in Arunachal Pradesh, as part of its increased efforts to assert its claim over the Indian state.
Taking to social media to express his condemnation, chief minister Khandu, strongly denounced the act of renaming places within Arunachal, which he said has been an integral part of India.
“Another gimmick from China. Being a proud citizen of Bharat and a native of Arunachal Pradesh, I strongly condemn this act of naming places within Arunachal Pradesh, which has been an inalienable integral part of India. Proud citizens and patriots of Arunachal Pradesh are rejecting such antics,” the chief minister wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Union Minister for Earth Sciences and Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal Pradesh, Kiren Rijiju, also condemned China’s recent actions.
In response to China’s unauthorized renaming of 30 places within Arunachal, Rijiju said: “I strongly condemn China’s illegally ‘standardised’ geographical names given to 30 places inside Arunachal Pradesh. China has been making all baseless claims, but it won’t change the ground reality and the historical fact. Arunachal Pradesh will remain an inalienable part of India.”
In a similar vein, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has urged the Indian government to adopt a “tit-for-tat” approach in response to China’s actions.
Sarma suggested that India should counter by assigning its own names to 60 “Tibetan areas of China.”
“My request to the government of India is that we should give 60 geographical names to Tibetan areas of China. It should always be tit-for-tat. But I don’t want to comment as it is a policy decision of the Government of India. But if they have named 30, we should name 60,” Sharma said.
The Ministry of External Affairs of India has also firmly rejected these attempts by China, stating that 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.
Also read: China releases fourth list of renamed places in Arunachal
