The Congress on Tuesday slammed External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for his "weak response" to China renaming 30 locations in Arunachal Pradesh. Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Manish Tewari said that China's move was nothing short of a cartographic aggression and the reaction to it was unbecoming of the Government Of India.
"Such a weak response is not expected of the External Affairs Minister. The people who speak strongly about [taking back] Katchatheevu from [Sri Lanka], are scared of even uttering the word China," Tewari said.
Arunachal Renaming Row
The row over renaming areas in Arunachal Pradesh began last week when the Chinese civil affairs ministry said it had renamed 30 more places along the India-China border. Reacting to the development, Jaishankar on Monday said: "If today I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be a state of India. Changing names does not have an effect...Our army is deployed there [Line of Actual Control]."
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, too, slammed China and called the attempt to rename the areas "senseless". He said: "China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. 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.”