India has strongly condemned China’s repeated attempts to rename locations within Arunachal Pradesh, calling the move “vain,” “preposterous,” and a futile exercise that does not alter ground realities.
Responding to media queries on Wednesday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated, “We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically.”
He further asserted, “Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
This statement comes amid China’s latest round of attempts to assert territorial claims by assigning Chinese names to areas within Arunachal Pradesh—actions that India has dismissed in the past as baseless and provocative.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had earlier criticised these actions with a pointed analogy: “If today I change the name of your house, will it become mine?” He reaffirmed, “Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be a state of India. Changing names does not have an effect.”
Jaishankar went on to call the move “senseless” and emphasised that even repeating such acts does not lend them legitimacy. “I hope I am saying it so clearly that not only in the country but beyond the country also, people get that message very, very clearly,” he said.
India has consistently and firmly rejected China’s attempts to challenge its sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh, reiterating that the state remains an integral and inalienable part of the Indian Union.
