Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh criticised China for renaming several areas in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign. He added that while India wants to have good relations with its neighbors, it has the authority to retaliate if someone tries to damage its reputation.

Rajnath further questioned whether those regions of the neighbouring country would become “parts of our territory” if India made a similar endeavour.

The leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party recognised that China has changed the names of thirty locations in the state, but he insisted that this would not alter the reality on the ground while speaking at an election rally on Tuesday in Namsai, in the Arunachal Pradesh east seat.

The Defense Minister asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and stated that China’s actions are the cause of the two nations’ deteriorating relations.

“I want to ask China if we change the names of various states of the neighbouring country, will those be parts of our territory? Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to say that friends change in life but neighbours do not change. Because of such activities, the relation between India and China will deteriorate,” Rajnath Singh said.

The renaming of some locations in Arunachal Pradesh by China was categorically rejected as “senseless” by India earlier this month. The country maintained that the state “is, has been, and will always be” an integral part of India, regardless of the “invented” names given to it.