China map issue 'very serious', PM should speak on it: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday termed as "very serious" the issue of China releasing a 'standard map' that laid claim over Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin, saying the neighbouring country had already taken India's land in Ladakh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak on the issue.

On Monday, Beijing released the 2023 edition of the so-called 'standard map of China' that laid claim over Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as regions within its borders.

Asked about the map issue as he was leaving for Karnataka, Gandhi told reporters, "I have just returned from Ladakh and I have been saying for years that what the PM has said, that not one inch of land has been lost in Ladakh, is an absolute lie. The whole of Ladakh knows that China has usurped our land."

"This map issue is very serious but they have already taken away our land and the PM should say something about that too," the former Congress president said.

The Congress on Tuesday took strong objection to the inclusion of Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin in China's map and asserted that these are inalienable parts of India which no such illegal representation or arbitrarily invented map by the "habitual offender" can change.

Raising the Sino-India border issue in Kargil last week, Gandhi said everyone in Ladakh knows that China has "taken away our land", claiming that the prime minister's assertion that not an inch of land was occupied was "absolutely false".

India has lodged a strong protest with China over the map.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Tuesday said India rejects these claims as they have no basis and that such steps by the Chinese side only "complicate" the resolution of the boundary question.