Himanta’s warning to ‘those who threaten India’s chicken neck corridor’: Bangladesh has 2 more vulnerable ones

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday warned that Bangladesh “has two of its own ‘chicken necks’” that are more vulnerable than India’s “chicken neck” corridor connecting the Northeast to the rest of the country.

This comes two months after the Bangladesh interim government’s chief adviser, Muhammad Yunus, said during a visit to China in March that Bangladesh is the “only guardian of the ocean” for India’s seven land-locked northeastern states. “So this could be an extension of the Chinese economy. Build things, produce things, market things, bring things to China, bring it out to the whole rest of the world,” Yunus had said.

Since then, Sarma has been emphasising the need to overcome the vulnerability associated with the “chicken neck” corridor. The northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim collectively have a 1,596-km international border with Bangladesh, 1,395-km border with China, 1,640-km border with Myanmar, 455-km border with Bhutan, and a 97-km border with Nepal. The states are only connected with the rest of India through a 22-km strip of land called the “chicken neck” corridor.

In a post on X on Sunday, Sarma said, “To those who habitually threaten India on the ‘Chicken Neck Corridor’, should note these facts as well: Bangladesh has two of its own “chicken necks”. Both are far more vulnerable.”

“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. 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. I am only presenting geographical facts that some may tend to forget,” his post read.

Sarma had also brought up the need to boost connectivity to the Northeast in the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday, where he had advocated “dedicated transport and logistics corridors, revival of inland waterways and critical railway infrastructure, freight subsidies and long-haul incentives for industries, affordable and reliable power with appropriate cost equalisation mechanisms”, according to his office.