Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday asserted that there have been discussions in Bangladesh on how to sever the northeastern part of India and join it to Bangladesh. He rejected such notions as impractical and Sarma claimed that India could not achieve this in her global status.
In an interview with the media, the Chief Minister indicated that over the last year, there have been frequent discussions in Bangladesh of separating the Northeast of India. He claimed that India is a large world power, a nuclear armed country and the fourth-largest economy in the world and how Bangladesh could even think of doing so. Sarma also claimed that this kind of talk is an indicator of a bad mentality and that India needs to re-evaluate the level of aid it gives in case of this kind of talk.
He also said that India would not sit by and watch uncivilised behaviour and emphasized on the need to send a strong message to those who made hostile statements. In his opinion, Bangladesh must be made to understand a lesson in case it keeps talking in a manner that will undermine the sovereignty of India.
The remarks by Himanta Sarma were directed against the comments made by Hasnat Abdullah, a senior leader of the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP) in Bangladesh. Abdullah is quoted stating that Bangladesh would be forced to isolate the northeast states of India in case New Delhi tries to destabilise Bangladesh. He was also supposed to propose an extension of aid to separatist forces in the area.
According to Abdullah, the Northeast of India is geographically vulnerable because this region relies on the Siliguri Corridor, a thin strip of land sometimes called the chicken neck as it links the region to mainland India.
In March this year, Sarma had also issued a stern threat to dangers to the Siliguri Corridor. He indicated that the country of Bangladesh has two narrow passages which are even weaker. In one of his posts on X, he pointed out the North Bangladesh Corridor and the Chittagong Corridor.
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