Staff REPORTER
ITANAGAR, Apr 2: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday emphatically said that the northeastern most state in India’s North East is “an inalienable integral part of India”.
Khandu’s statement came in after the Chinese government has given some 'standardised' geographical names to some places in Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as the southern part of Tibet.
He described “another gimmick” China’s repeated actions of renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh.
Taking to micro-blogging site X, Khandu wrote: “Another gimmick from China. Being a proud citizen of Bharat and a native of Arunachal Pradesh, I strongly condemn this act of naming of places within Arunachal Pradesh which has been an inalienable, integral part of India. Proud citizens and patriots of Arunachal Pradesh are rejecting such antics.”
Union Minister and Arunachal Pradesh MP Kiren Rijiju has also strongly condemned China’s illegally ‘standardised’ geographical names given to 30 places inside Arunachal Pradesh.
In a social media post, Rijiju said, “China has been making all baseless claims but it won't change the ground reality and the historical facts. He said, Arunachal Pradesh is and will remain an inalienable part of India.
Earlier in the day, condemning China’s provocative action of renaming places in Arunachal, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal 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.”