A day after netizens pointed out that The Times of India had included the Indian territory of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the map of Pakistan, the news publication did not bother to remove the contentious image from its social media handles.
On Monday (April 4), the English Daily had shared a wrong map where it had given away PoK to Pakistan. The contentious image was featured in an article, which talked about the economic crisis and strategic weakness of Pakistan.
Even after 24 hours had passed, The Times of India did not delete its contentious tweet wherein it gave away an integral part of India’s territory to Pakistan. It has also not apologised for its actions or issued any clarification.
The cartoon that TOI published in the tweet covered a significant portion of J&K and Ladakh (Gilgit-Baltistan). The portion of Kashmir that has been illegally occupied by Pakistan and China is an integral part of India.
This is not the first time a news agency has shown the wrong map depicting PoK as part of Pakistan. In the past, India Today, CNN, Aaj Tak, Google and Twitter have made blunders in a similar manner. In April 2020, India Today showed a distorted map of India in a graphic during a show hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai.
In August 2017, CNN posted the wrong map of India on Independence Day. The map was changed after the uproar. In December 2020, Aaj Tak streamed the wrong map of India while discussing Bharat Bandh. In June 2021, BBC showed the wrong map of India while covering the Delta variant of Covid-19.
In June 2021, Google showed the wrong map of India, depicting Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin as separate entities and not a part of the Indian Union. In the same month, Twitter reiterated the mistake and showed a distorted map of India in the career section on its website. Notably, Twitter has been a repeat offender in this context.