Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday, 16th December, that people in Bangladesh have been talking for the past year about splitting India’s northeast from the rest of the country and adding it to Bangladesh. He made it clear this won’t happen because India is a huge nation, the fourth-largest economy in the world, and has nuclear power. “How can Bangladesh even dream of that?” Sarma asked while speaking to the media.
#WATCH | Hojai | Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma says, "For the past year, there has been repeated discussion in Bangladesh about separating the Northeast from India and making it a part of Bangladesh… The people of Bangladesh have a bad mindset. We shouldn't help them too much… pic.twitter.com/qrQYpHCr9V
— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2025
The Assam CM said, “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?”
Sarma pointed out that people of Bangladesh have a bad mindset toward India. He said India shouldn’t help them too much and needs to teach them a lesson. “We won’t stay quiet if they keep talking like this about India,” he added.
His comments came right after Hasnat Abdullah, a top leader in Bangladesh’s new National Citizen Party, spoke out on Monday, 15th December. Abdullah said Dhaka should isolate India’s northeastern states if New Delhi tries to mess with Bangladesh. He also talked about his support for separatist groups in India’s northeast.
Abdullah called those states “geographically vulnerable” because they rely on the narrow Siliguri Corridor, also known as the “chicken’s neck.” This thin strip of land links the northeast to the Indian mainland.
Earlier this year, Sarma had warned Bangladesh not to target India’s “chicken’s neck.” He reminded them that Bangladesh has two even more vulnerable narrow strips of its own.
To those who habitually threaten India on the “Chicken Neck Corridor”, should note these facts as well:
1️⃣ Bangladesh has two of its own “chicken necks”. Both are far more vulnerable
2️⃣ First is the 80 Km North Bangladesh Corridor- from Dakhin Dinajpur to South West Garo… pic.twitter.com/DzV3lUAOhR— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 25, 2025
In a post on X, he explained the first one: the 80 km North Bangladesh Corridor from Dakhin Dinajpur to South West Garo Hills. If anything blocks it, the whole Rangpur division gets cut off from the rest of Bangladesh.
The second is the 28 km Chittagong Corridor from South Tripura to the Bay of Bengal. Sarma noted this one is smaller than India’s “chicken’s neck” and is the only connection between Bangladesh’s economic hub and its political capital.