Indian Congress Party MP Shashi Tharoor has triggered controversy after sharing his manifesto for the upcoming party presidential election, which shows a map of India with parts of the union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh missing from it.
The non-standard map has triggered lots of angry comments on social, which eventually led to Tharoor's office immediately editing the map and finally showing all of Kashmir as part of India, in accordance with the borders officially recognized by the Indian government.
Some even began to wonder if this was just a blunder or the "genuine national security policy" of Congress.
"Jammu & Kashmir UT and Ladakh UT parts gifted to Pakistan and China in the Manifesto map of India issued by Congress Presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor. Bharat Jodo or Bharat Todo (United India or Divided)?" Kashmiri Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul tweeted.
The deviation from the official political map is especially significant, given that India and Pakistan have fought several wars over the region since gaining independence in 1947. As of today, India controls the southern part of the Kashmir region, while Pakistan and China hold its northwestern and northeastern parts, respectively.
This year's congressional presidential election is the first in over 20 years where members of the Gandhi family are not running. In fact, Gandhi insisted that this time the head of the party should be a non-Gandhian.