Guwahati, Dec 16: Reacting to recent assertions made in Bangladesh about separating India’s Northeast and merging it with the neighbouring country, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Tuesday, said such thinking is irresponsible and detached from reality.
“For the past year, there have been talks in Bangladesh about separating the Northeast from India and merging it with their country. But India today is a growing economy, a nuclear nation, and the fourth-largest economy in the world. How can Bangladesh even think of doing this?” Sarma said, on the sidelines of an event at Lumding.
The Chief Minister said such narratives reflect “bad thinking” and warned that India should not remain silent in the face of such remarks.
“We should not encourage this kind of mindset. The people of Bangladesh must understand that India will not stay silent on such behaviour,” he said.
Sarma stressed that the Northeast is an integral part of India and dismissed any suggestion of territorial separation as politically motivated rhetoric with no real basis.
Earlier on Dec 15, Hasnat Abdullah, a senior figure of Bangladesh’s newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), issued a provocative warning to India, claiming Dhaka could “isolate” India’s northeastern states if New Delhi attempted to destabilise Bangladesh.