'If we rename states in China...': Rajnath on Beijing changing names of places in Arunachal 

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday criticised China for renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh and said such a move will harm the bilateral relationship with Beijing. Addressing an election rally at Namsai in Arunachal, Singh said China's move to change the names of 30 places in the northeastern state will not change the ground reality. 

Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, he said. "I want to ask China if we change the names of various states of the neighbouring country, will those be parts of our territory? Because of such activities, the relationship between India and China will deteriorate."

Singh said New Delhi wants to maintain good relations with all its neighbours. "But if anybody tries to harm our self-respect, India has the capability to give a befitting reply," the defence minister said.

China recently released another list of geographical names in Zangnan – the Chinese name for India's Arunachal Pradesh. India outrightly rejected the move and said that assigning "invented" names does not alter the reality that the state "is, has been, and will always be" an integral part of India. 

Beijing had recently announced Chinese names for 30 more places in Arunachal Pradesh, which the neighbouring country claims as the southern part of Tibet.

Responding to this, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the response from India should be ‘tit-for-tat’. He said for the 30 names China released, India should rename 60 areas from the Tibetan area of China. 

"My request to the government of India – we should give a list of 60 geographical names of the Tibetan area of China. It should always be tit-for-tat. But I don’t want to comment because it is a policy decision of the government of India. But if they have named 30, we should name 60," said Sarma to reporters on Tuesday.