Yunus sparks diplomatic row with map showing India’s northeast as part of Bangladesh

New Delhi: Bangladesh’s interim head Muhammad Yunus has sparked a new diplomatic controversy after presenting a Pakistani military leader with a book carrying a distorted map that depicts India’s northeastern states as part of Bangladesh. The incident has drawn sharp reactions online and added to tensions between Dhaka and New Delhi.

The controversy arose during the weekend visit of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairperson, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, to Dhaka. As part of the engagement, Yunus met the visiting general, signalling a continued thaw in relations between the two nations, whose ties have long been fraught since the 1971 Liberation War.

On Sunday, Yunus posted photos of the meeting on social media, showing him gifting Mirza a copy of Art of Triumph. The book’s cover carried an image of a map portraying India’s seven northeastern states—including Assam—as Bangladeshi territory, mirroring the “Greater Bangladesh” vision often propagated by fringe Islamist groups.

The image quickly went viral, prompting backlash from analysts and journalists across South Asia. Several commentators accused Yunus of overstepping diplomatic boundaries by invoking India’s sovereignty in an unsolicited manner. The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi has yet to issue an official statement on the matter.

The episode comes amid improving Bangladesh-Pakistan relations since Yunus assumed office in August 2024, following the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government during a violent student-led uprising. However, under Yunus’s leadership, Bangladesh’s relationship with India has cooled, even as Dhaka’s engagements with Islamabad and Beijing have intensified.

This is not the first time Yunus has made controversial remarks about India’s northeast. During his visit to China in April, the Nobel laureate described Bangladesh as the “only guardian of the ocean” for the region, arguing that the northeastern states of India were “landlocked” and lacked maritime access.

“The seven states of India, the eastern part of India... they are a landlocked country. They have no way to reach out to the ocean,” Yunus had told Chinese officials. “We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region. So this opens up a huge possibility. This could be an extension of the Chinese economy,” he added.

His comments were widely seen as an attempt to invite China’s involvement in South Asia’s geopolitically sensitive northeastern corridor. India has historically maintained access to the region through the narrow ‘Chicken’s Neck’ corridor in north Bengal and strengthened cross-border connectivity with Bangladesh during Hasina’s tenure.

Following Yunus’s remarks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reaffirmed the strategic importance of India’s northeast, describing it as a vital hub for the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. India also withdrew a transshipment agreement that had allowed Bangladeshi goods to move through Indian territory to Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar.

Tensions escalated further in May when Yunus’s close aide, Major General (retd) Fazlur Rahman, suggested that Bangladesh could collaborate with China to occupy India’s northeastern states if hostilities broke out with Pakistan. The comment followed the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.

In 2024, another Yunus associate, Nahidul Islam, shared a “Greater Bangladesh” map showing parts of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam as Bangladeshi territory, a post that was later deleted after public outrage.

While Yunus has not commented on the latest controversy, analysts say his repeated references to India’s northeast and overtures toward Pakistan and China could signal a deliberate diplomatic shift in Dhaka’s regional strategy.