Correct our map, India tells US

Despite strong objections on “gross inaccuracies” in the map of India on the US State Department website and asserting “the maps will have to be corrected”, the portal continues to have the incorrect map. The US State Department in its official map of India has depicted Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as part of Pakistan.

Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said, “We are in the business of pointing out to most of the world that they constantly draw our maps wrong. The maps will have to be corrected.”

Mathai said the External Affairs Ministry was talking to a number of nations and organisations who have been wrongly showing Indian territories in some other countries.

“I have been in this business for over 35 years and I have done this couple of hundred times. I think cartography is not an exact science, particularly when viewed with a political outlook,” he said.

Recently, a similar controversy was triggered when a Chinese private company depicted a distorted Indian map and showed Arunachal Pradesh as part of China.

This apart, commenting on the modernisation of Chinese military infrastructure in Tibet, Mathai said India was also building its infrastructure in the Northeast. To another query on increasing role of India in Afghanistan, Mathai said the country’s focus will continue to be on capacity building and skill development of Afghan civil service, Parliament, armed forces and police.

Observing that India continues to be the most favoured partner in Afghanistan, he said voices have already been raised in India about New Delhi over-stretching itself there.