Itanagar: Chief Minister Pema Khandu slammed the United Nations for a map showing Arunachal Pradesh outside of India. He demanded the international body fix the error immediately. The map, pushed live on July 1, labels the state as an independent region tucked between Chinese and Indian territorial claims. It also cuts off the border with Nagaland and marks Aksai Chin as a distinct area.
Khandu issued a sharp rebuke on behalf of his constituents. He stated, "Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inseparable part of India." The government finds the portrayal entirely unacceptable.
India's Ministry of External Affairs is now playing hardball. Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed the government flagged these specific anomalies with the UN. Officials made it clear that backing any UN cartographic resolutions does not mean they sign off on individual flawed maps. The UN has kept quiet. They offered no public explanation for the controversial changes.
Updated at 10th September 2026 at 10:07pm
The pressure is mounting from all sides. On September 10, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee threw its weight behind the government's stance. APCC president Bosiram Siram called the map unacceptable and declared that India's sovereignty over the state is non-negotiable. He argued that no foreign document can change the reality of how the region has been administered since independence. Siram pushed for the central government to move beyond diplomacy, suggesting they beef up security, roads, and economic infrastructure in these border zones to cement India's presence.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stepped in to clarify India's position on the UN General Assembly resolution regarding equal-area maps. Jaiswal stated the resolution serves only to improve map projections and does not address political boundaries, disputed territories, or specific place names. He stressed that India's vote in favor of that resolution was never an endorsement of this flawed map, reaffirming that the country's sovereign territory must strictly match India's official maps.
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