‘Will not remain silent, teach a lesson’: Assam CM Himanta Sarma warns after Bangladesh leader’s remarks

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has warned that Delhi would not remain silent and would teach a ‘lesson’ if politicians in Bangladesh continue to make irresponsible remarks about India’s northeast region and reminded them that India is the fourth largest economy in the world and a nuclear nation. Reacting to the comments of Hasnat Abdullah, a leader of Bangladesh’s newly formed National Citizen Party, Sarma said on Tuesday, “For the past year, there has been repeated discussion in Bangladesh about separating the northeast from India and making it a part of Bangladesh. But India is a very big country, a nuclear nation and the fourth largest economy of the world. How can Bangladesh even think about it?”

He added that the people of Bangladesh have a “bad mindset” and that “we should not help them too much”.

“We should not help them too much and should teach them a lesson that we will not remain silent if they behave this way towards India,” he said, while talking to media.

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National Citizen Party leader Hasnat Abdullah said on Monday that Dhaka should “isolate” India’s northeastern states if New Delhi tries to “destabilise” Bangladesh.

Earlier this year, Himanta had issued a warning to Bangladesh against targeting India's ‘chicken’s neck’ and said in a post on X that those who ‘habitually threaten’ India on the ‘chicken neck corridor’ should note that Bangladesh has two such narrow strips of land, which are “far more vulnerable”.

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“First is the 80 km North Bangladesh Corridor from Dakhin Dinajpur to South West Garo Hills. Any disruption here, can completely isolate the entire Rangpur division from rest of Bangladesh,” he had said.

“Second is the 28 km Chittagong Corridor, from South Tripura till the Bay of Bengal. This corridor, smaller than India’s chicken neck, is the only link between Bangladesh’s economic capital and political capital,” he added.

Earlier this year, the Chief Adviser of the country’s interim government, Mohammed Yunus, said, “The seven states of India in its eastern part are a landlocked region. They have no way to reach out to the ocean. We are the only guardians of the ocean.”

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