India sees red as China comes out with 30 Arunachal names

EXTERNAL Affairs Minister S Jaishankar slammed China on Monday as it came out with another list of new names for a few places in Arunachal Pradesh days after he dismissed Beijing's claims over Arunachal Pradesh.

- mayank singh

Last week the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released 30 additional names for the region as the fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh.

China has been calling Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet and laying its claim over this 90,000 sq km area, which India has asserted to be an integral part of the country. Jaishankar said that changing names will not alter the reality.

Addressing a presser in Gujarat, Jaishankar 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 any effect." He added that the Indian Army is deployed at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).