Bangladeshis' claim of separating NE India 'irresponsible and dangerous': Himanta

Guwahati, Dec 16 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that a section of Bangladeshis has been repeatedly saying that India's North East should be merged with the neighbouring country which is ''irresponsible and dangerous'' and India will not remain silent on this.

Sarma was reacting to the statement of senior leader of Bangladesh’s newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), Hasnat Abdullah, on Monday that Dhaka should “isolate” India’s northeastern states and extend support to separatist elements in the region, if New Delhi attempted to destabilise his country.

''For the last one year, statements have been coming again and again from that country that the states of North East India should be separated and made a part of Bangladesh,'' the chief minister said on the sidelines of a programme in Lumding.

Sarma said, ''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 said that even thinking about it was ''wrong, but the thought process of people of Bangladesh was bad''.

This mindset should not be encouraged, and Bangladesh should not be helped much in any way, Sarma said.

''We should teach them a lesson that if they continue to behave in this way, we will not remain silent,'' he said.

Hasnat Abdullah, the Bangladeshi leader, had claimed that the Northeastern states were geographically 'vulnerable' as they were dependent on the narrow Siliguri Corridor, also called the 'Chicken's Neck', for connectivity with the Indian mainland. PTI DG DG NN