The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been facing the flak for separating Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh from its colour-coded COVID dashboard map. Times of India reported that the newly created union territories have been separately marked in the organisation’s new map. They have been depicted in grey colour, while the rest of India is marked in navy blue.
Another cause of this conflict is the fact that the disputed border between India and China has been marked with the identical shade of China despite there being no solid conclusion on the ownership of the territory between the two countries. This has been demarcated in grey with blue stripes that are of the shade marked by China.
This map was released on WHO’s COVID scenario dashboard, showing the coronavirus statistics for each country. It soon became viral, causing widespread outrage after being shared across WhatsApp groups.
Strong reactions were registered especially amongst the diaspora. Nandini Singh, who heads social media at Reach India (UK), a diaspora group, lashed out at the WHO saying that depicting Indian territory in different colours demonstrates it is in a nexus with China.”Instead of thanking India for what it has done to fight Covid-19, including supplying PPE and vaccine to the world, this is a deliberate attempt to hurt India. WHO needs to apologise to India and correct the error,” she said.
Many observers say that WHO which has failed to make China accountable for unleashing the pandemic on the world, could have been pressurized by the Communist Party of China into distorting the map.