EXPRESS IMPACT:Distorted Indian map removed from US Pacific Fleet site

US Pacific Fleet site with distorted Indian map

Now, US Pacific Fleet removed the map and changed with tags

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on November 26, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/states/tamilnadu/distorted-indian-map-removed-from-us-site/337108.html

CHENNAI: Bowing to the  Express expose, the United States Pacific Fleet has removed the distorted Indian map from its website.

Though the US Pacific Fleet’s Emerging Media Director Chuck Bell, in an email reply to Express two weeks ago, had downplayed the presence of a distorted map on its site, stating that it had been designed to be used only as a website linking tool, the controversial map has been finally removed from the site.

The US Pacific Fleet has also redesigned the page and placed it under the ‘area of responsibility’ tag, listing 37 countries with their flags to make users understand their work in the Pacific region.
It may be noted that Express published a story on November 10 on the issue, where a distorted map on the US Pacific Fleet’s site showed Indian territories like Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir as part of China. Reacting to the Express report, US Pacific Fleet, in an email said that the inaccuracies pertaining to the map on its site were ‘unintentional’.

Meanwhile, speaking to Express after the expose, BJP chief spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad and Lok Sabha MP (Congress) from Arunachal Pradesh West Takam Sanjay had condemned the act as mischievous and urged theCentre to persuade the US Pacific Fleet to remove the distorted Indian map at once. The website (http://www.cpf.navy.mil) is accessed by hundreds of sailors and veterans daily.