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Cartographic aggression: Pakistan's new political map

Last Updated 06 August 2020, 19:56 IST

The tit-for-tat game that India and Pakistan often engage in has entered a new phase with the Pakistan government unveiling a ‘new political map’ of the country. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a map that shows the Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and Ladakh as well as territory in Gujarat as part of Pakistan, a move that is in response to a map that India issued in October last year that showed Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Gilgit-Baltistan as well as Aksai Chin as Indian territory. Desperation to be seen to be standing up to India appears to be driving Pakistan’s map-drawing exercise. Last year, Islamabad sought to mobilise the international community against India’s abrogation of J&K’s autonomy by taking the matter to various global forums and flexed its muscle along the Line of Control (LoC) by repeatedly violating the ceasefire. With these actions yielding nothing, Pakistan has set off on new campaigns. Besides cartographic aggression, it issued a postage stamp to ostensibly highlight ‘Indian atrocities’ in Kashmir.

As it turns out, Pakistan’s ‘new’ political map has little that is new. Much of the territory depicted as Pakistan is land that Islamabad has long laid claim to. All that the new map does is to underscore with greater emphasis Pakistan’s position on these territories. If in the past, Pakistan described J&K as ‘Held Kashmir’ or ‘Indian-Occupied Kashmir,’ the ‘new map’ has the words ‘Indian illegally-occupied Jammu and Kashmir” emblazoned on it. It also mentions within parentheses that this is “Disputed Territory,” whose “final status will be decided in line with the relevant UNSC resolutions.” However, Pakistan’s new political map lays bare the true motivations that underlie its policy on Kashmir. By clearly showing J&K as Pakistani territory, it has revealed that it is annexation of Kashmiri territory that drives its policy. Its claims of supporting the aspirations of the Kashmiri people for an independent state stand exposed as a sham. Those Kashmiris who look to Islamabad to support their struggle for ‘azadi’ need to take a hard look at Pakistan’s new map and its reiteration of support for UNSC resolutions that deny Kashmiris the option of independence.

Unable or unwilling to address problems at home, governments in India’s neighbourhood have taken to drawing new maps to deflect attention from problems at hand. Only recently, Nepal came up with a new map showing Indian territory as part of Nepal. Besides a shared bonding with China, Pakistan and Nepal seem to be adopting a common strategy of waging cartographic aggression on India.

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(Published 06 August 2020, 18:55 IST)

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