Chinese Checkers: A challenge for India's 'name changers'!

New Delhi: All the people who changed the names of cities, roads, streets, railway stations, districts etc. are silent on the matter that China changed the names of many places in a state of India and there is no statement, other than an official statement, warning China to be taught a lesson for such an act.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said that Arunachal Pradesh is and will remain an integral part of India, nothing will happen with fabricated names.

In fact, China changed the names of 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh, while identifying these places on the basis of latitude and longitude and gave new names according to the Tibetan and Roman alphabets. Among the areas that China has renamed, eight are residential areas, four are mountains, two are rivers and mountain passes.

Earlier in 2017, when the Doklam dispute was going on between China and India, at that time also they had changed the names of six places but it was not discussed much then.

Right now, since there is a dispute with China in many places and it has made a new land border law, which has been implemented from January 1, there has been more discussion about changing the names of 15 places.

India’s concern has increased with this new land border law. Just imagine how many places in India have been renamed so far.

Names are being changed from Allahabad to Faizabad and from Habibganj to Mughalsarai in the name of establishing Hindu identity and erasing the identity of Muslim history. But in one stroke, China challenged the sovereignty of India.

It claimed stake on one of our state and changed the names of its places. China has already been saying that Arunachal Pradesh is Southern Tibetan, whose Chinese name is Zang Nan. But now going a step ahead, it has started changing the names of its places.

This is not a merely a statement from China’s foreign ministry, to which India’s foreign ministry will respond. This is a decisive step, which must be countered at the top level of the government.

There should be increased pressure from India that China should fix the names of the places which have been changed. India did not do this in 2017, there China is being courageous now.

If nothing is done even now, then China will strengthen its claim on the places whose names have been changed. India should immediately call the Chinese ambassador and give a warning in strict words.

By law, diplomatic and business relations should end, but India cannot end business relations because the country’s economy is largely dependent on China.