 | « Back to article | Print this article |
The Opposition People's Democratic Party has drawn a map that showed Aksai Chin in China fuelling a controversy and inviting a strong condemnation from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who said "gifting away" of state's territory will be not be acceptable.
The map displayed by PDP during a power point presentation on Saturday showed Aksai Chin and Karakoram region painted in red and part of China and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in green.
The depiction of the map is seen as an acceptance of the occupation of these areas-- which formed part of the erstwhile J and K -- by the respective countries. India considers these areas to be part of its territory.
"It is up to the PDP how they would want to clear this (map). I don not think it is acceptable to any one that part of state's territory is gifted away like this," Omar said.
The Chief Minister, however, said that he was in favour of making the borders irrelevant that would ensure free trade and travel between the sides of divided state.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said he will see what needs to be done if the map brought out by PDP was not a mistake.
"I hope somebody has made a mistake. If it is not a mistake, then we will see (what needs to be done," he said in Chennai while reacting to queries by reporters.
The minister, however, said he has not seen the map.
PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti said her party has not done anything to challenge the sovereignty of the country over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mufti maintained that the party wanted to restore the prominent place given to Kashmir on the ancient silk route connecting Central and South Asia.
"We have only shown the distance say from Kashmir-Leh to Yarkand, which is in China. These routes were open before 1947. We have not done anything (to change the map)," she added.
The PDP president said the power-point presentation only highlighted the distance between Srinagar and other major trade centres in Central Asia and China before 1947.
Chief spokesman of the party Nayeem Akhtar said the map in question does not mean anything politically.
"We want erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, as it existed before the partition of subcontinent, should be made a free economic zone," Akhtar said.
He said the traditional routes connecting Jammu and Kashmir, Central Asia and China, which became a casualty of "partition tragedy", should be opened as closure of these has led to the feeling of a siege in the state.