The BJP has taken umbrage to a product on the Canadian version of online retailer Amazon because it is depicts an incorrect map of India. Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has said the website has been made aware of the issue and asked to immediately pull the product from its inventory.
The offending product is a vinyl wall decoration of the map of India, marked in the colours of the national flag. The product is being peddled on Amazon Canada by a seller named DIYthinker. It costs CDN$25.35, with shipping charges extra.
The reason this flag has riled certain sections within the BJP is that it shows incorrect boundaries for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The map does not show parts of J&K occupied by Pakistan and China, in congruency with the world view that these are "disputed territories."
Delhi BJP spokersperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has pointed this out, saying on his official Twitter handle that Amazon Canada was "selling a distorted map of India." He added: "It is unacceptable. Remove this from your website and stop selling it immediately."
When IBTimes India reached out to him, he said that no formal action had been taken so far other than to bring the matter to the attention of Amazon and its Canada business. "We will see till tomorrow evening [Sunday evening]. If they do not remove it by then, we will initiate action from our side," he said.
India had in 2016 introduced a draft version of the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, which when passed by Parliament would result in a seven-year prison term and Rs 100 crore fine for anyone who depicted the map of India incorrectly. The bill was brought in response to certain tech giants and social media platforms depicting parts of the country as being within Pakistan or China.
It may be noted that while the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill has not been formally passed by Parliament, the tech giants and social media platforms have changed their depiction of India on the map.
