Indian Map distortion unintentional, says US Pacific Fleet

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on November 12, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/%E2%80%98map-distortion-unintentional%E2%80%99/332400.html

CHENNAI: The sensitivity of Indians towards Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh is no big deal for the United States’ Pacific Fleet. Reacting to an Express report on the distorted map of India on its website, the Fleet has said that the inaccuracies were ‘unintentional.’

“The map in question is designed to be used only as a website linking tool. It is not prepared with the same precision as a scientific map and is not to scale,”Chuck Bell, Emerging Media Director of US Pacific Fleet said in an email reply. “Any inaccuracy associated with boundaries of physical or geopolitical features is unintentional,” Bell said.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party, the BJP condemned the act of distortion.Speaking to Express over phone, Ravishankar Prasad, the party’s chief spokesperson, said, “We condemn the act and wants the Indian government to take up the issue strongly with the US government as presence of such a distorted map would send a wrong signal.”
Takam Sanjay, Lok Sabha MP (Congress) from Arunachal Pradesh West Parliamentary Constituency, told Express that the act by US Pacific Fleet “might be a politically-motivated one to disintegrate our country”. Whether J&K or Arunachal Pradesh, not a single inch belongs to any other country other than India, Sanjay said.