(TibetanReview.net, Apr28’20) – While it denies being China-centric, the World Health Organization has opened itself to just such an accusation through a cartographic mischief concerning India. Its depiction of the Indian map is totally in keeping with the Chinese government’s position on its border dispute with India and its support for Pakistan.
It has marked Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with dotted lines, suggesting it as a disputed territory. It has also shown parts of Ladakh as Chinese territory.
It has marked Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the rest of India in different colour codes.
While several United Nations maps have shown parts of Kashmir as ‘disputed’ territory in the past, this is probably the first time that Ladakh and J&K are shown in different colour codes than the rest of India, noted moneycontrol.com Apr 28.
“The map of India depicted by WHO differs from the standard depiction even of the United Nations itself, by not showing parts of J&K which are under actual control of India as a part of our country,” the report quoted Gautam Bambawale, India’s former envoy to China, Pakistan and Bhutan, as saying.
He has also called the different colour coding for J&K and Ladakh from the rest of India in the WHO map “strange, incorrect, and surprising.”
Only recently, China included parts of Arunachal Pradesh — which it calls a part of South Tibet — within its international boundaries in an updated version of the Sky Map.
