Why in news?
Pakistan’s new map asserts its claims on Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek, and lays a new claim to Junagadh.
What are Pakistan’s claims?
- Jammu and Kashmir – Pakistan map has claimed to all of Jammu and Kashmir, but not Ladakh.
- This claim goes against its own commitment to adjudicate the future of all six parts of the erstwhile royal state of Jammu-Kashmir with India.
- [Parts of the erstwhile royal state of Jammu-Kashmir - Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, PoK and Aksai Chin]
- The new map draws a line demarcating Gilgit-Baltistan separately from the Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
- It renamed Jammu and Kashmir as Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
- Siachen and Sir Creek - Both the places were under several discussions between India and Pakistan.
- Pakistan’s unilateral claim over them is not helpful or conducive to future resolution.
- Junagadh - The map has made a new claim over Junagadh, which opens up a completely new dispute.
- Junagadh, a former princely state, was in contention at the time of Partition.
- The issue was successfully resolved after a referendum was conducted there in February 1948.
- In this referendum, an overwhelming 95% of the state’s residents voted to stay with India.
- Junagadh’s accession to India was accepted by Pakistan.
- Ladakh - The new map leaves the claim line with Ladakh unclear.
How did India respond?
- Pakistan’s map appears to have reset several agreements with India that have been concretised over the past 70 years.
- The Ministry of External Affairs has termed Pakistan’s announcement of a new map as an exercise in political absurdity.
- It accused Pakistan of attempting a form of territorial aggrandisement supported by cross-border terrorism.
What is next?
- India should be prepared for Pakistan taking all the issues it has raised with its new map to the international stage.
- Pakistan’s actions come in conjunction with map-related issues India faces today on two other fronts with,
- China at the Line of Actual Control on Ladakh, and
- Nepal at Kalapani and Limpiyadhura (which Nepal’s government has also issued a new map about).
- All these three countries objected to the map that India had issued in November 2019, albeit for different reasons.
- India must be well-prepared to deal with the three-pronged cartographic challenge it will face in the coming months.
Source: The Hindu
