LS polls: BJP, AAP fight over Kashmir map on sites
30 March 2014 11:15 AM IST30 March 2014 11:15 AM IST
Both parties showed global version of the state on their websites
Both the BJP and the AAP had used the global version of Google Maps in their party websites.
Hyderabad: The BJP and the AAP got into a Twitter slugfest over their respective websites showing Kashmir as a disputed territory. Ironically, both parties ranted and raved without perhaps realising that the maps on their websites belonged to Google.
In India, Google Maps shows Kashmir without any divisions while its global version has Kashmir divided into PoK and India. Both parties had used the global version of Google Maps. However, BJP changed it on Saturday and PoK doesn’t reflect on the map on its ‘Contact Us’ page any longer.
BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had called AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal a Pakistani agent and had said that AAP’s website showed Kashmir as a disputed territory.
BJP spokesperson Ms Nirmala Sitharaman had also said that the AAP had given away Jammu and Kashmir in the latter’s website.
However, the AAP later countered by Tweeting a grab of BJP’s own website which showed a boundary demarcating PoK from India administered Kashmir.
AAP’s official Twitter account posted on Thursday, “BJP seems to be confusing AAP’s website with its own which shows Kashmir as disputed.”
Mr Manvendra Singh Rana, an AAP supporter, Tweeted, “AAP-BJP slug-fest over J&K maps. WRONG! BJP attacked AAP but later had to defend map on BJP’s site itself. Ate its own words!”
However, indulging in the slugfest, both parties forgot that the map shown on the website belonged to Google and not the respective parties.
The maps are made available in the Google Maps Application Programming Interface (API) that website developers use while developing websites.
Google India said that the company follows the rules of the land when showing territories on maps.
Mr Arijit Sarkar, director, India Operations, Google, said, “We follow the laws of the land in each country of operation. In the Indian domain, Maps show an undisputed Kashmir which are according to international guidelines.” He further added, “The dot com domain maps are global so they are different.”
BJP’s website developers probably used the global version of Google Maps rather than the Indian version. Several controversies have already broken out over this particular issue.
However, on Saturday, BJP’s website had changed the maps to the India version while the Aam Aadmi Party removed the map from their web pages altogether.
( Source : dc )
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