The Economist shows distorted map of India in latest issue

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The Economist has published a distorted map of India in its latest issue with part of Kashmir being blacked out as part of an article on BJP winning control of the richest state of Maharashtra.

Last year in June, Twitter showed a distorted map of India, with Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as separate countries which was later removed after a backlash.

As per The Economist, Eknath Shinde, who represents a part of Thane in the state Assembly and had himself once driven an auto rickshaw for a living, was sworn in as Chief Minister of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital.

Shinde’s ascent capped 10 days of political turmoil in India’s richest and second-most populous state. A longtime member of the Shiv Sena, for decades Maharashtra’s dominant political force, Shinde broke away along with some 40-odd legislators and tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the national government. 

“It is a blockbuster surprise,” says Sanjay Jha, a former spokesman for the Congress party, which until last week helped run the state in a grand coalition with the Shiv Sena and a third party. 

Nobody expected the Sena, as it is often known, to crack up, The Economist reported.