Securing India’s Chicken Neck

A lot has been said, written and discussed on the recent, not-so-pleasant ousting of Sheikh Hasina and the subsequent slippage of Bangladesh in the hands of anti-development radicals. However, the most critical aspect that’s emerging is that the USA in toe jointly with Pakistan and China is trying to deliver a strategic blow to India, all for their different respective reasons through Muhammad Yunus, who is acting as a trusted pawn in their hands because he wants to stay in power by hook or crook. He doesn’t mind playing this dangerous game on behalf of both China and the joint team of the USA and Pakistan, as a proxy, even at the cost of self-goal bound to rattle Bangladesh’s interest in the long run, as there can not be any other country to be a true well-wisher of Bangladesh than India. This fact is well known to all the nationalists, including the Army in Bangladesh. In fact, recently, Yunus has been sternly warned and advised to hold elections even by the radical Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, whose unstinted support is his main source of strength. However, the taste of power is known to be a notorious aphrodisiac for such temporary fly-by-night power grabbers, who can jeopardise the national interest for the sake of their own gain.

His most provocative rhetoric in the recent past on the seven northeastern states of India and West Bengal, with the ultimate ulterior motive, indicating cutting off the chicken neck, also called the Siliguri corridor, poses a big worry and potential threat, which China and Pakistan want to exploit. In addition to this, there is the absurd and funny claim by China about the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh being south Tibet and going to the extent of renaming some of its areas clearly with the aim to give a strategic blow to India that can not be taken lightly. Several fronts have been opened by Pakistan, China, and now freshly joined by Bangladesh to create problems with India in this sensitive yet critical corridor, which is the main connecting lifeline of all these eight Indian states with the rest of the country, and if disturbed, can impede India’s growth and rise. Prime Minister Modi and his cabinet colleagues, including CMs of Assam and West Bengal, have repeatedly expressed the view that the East & North Eastern States of India would be the horse engine of progress for the country. In fact, PM Modi, immediately after coming to power in 2014, had given the clarion call to the ‘Look East Policy’, indicating the region emerging as the new strategic growth hub of the country. The whole world is aware of China’s focus on this sensitive and vital Indian corridor to succeed in its ever-increasing hunger to grab and annexe adjacent territories belonging to other sovereign countries like Tibet. Now it has been providing enough bait to Bangladesh to revive the Second World War British-built airport at Lalmonirhat near Rangpur to keep India under constant pressure, which indeed is an important strategic security challenge, but it’s well known to the Chinese that India can manage it well.

Sankaracharya Kanchipuram Jagatguru Sree Vijendra Saraswati Swamiji had categorically told me long back in 1999 and very often reiterates that for peace and progress in the North Eastern States including adjoining countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar etc. it’s important that West Bengal remain strong both financially as well as administratively (read civil-militarily). The fact of the matter is that as long as West Bengal was economically strong prior to the Left engulfing the state in the ‘70s, there was peace for sure in the North Eastern parts of India and all its immediate neighbourhood countries. However, that’s a different issue which can be taken up between us later.

Coming back to the important chicken neck corridor issue, one thing that should be conclusively understood is that the Pakistan-Bangladesh Islamists i.e. Jamaat-e-Islami in cahoot with ISI have formed a deadly cocktail and have been conveniently using the Indo-Bangladesh porous borders to push radicals including terrorists to change the demography and create enough sleeper cells, respectively, with the sole aim to take revenge, especially of the 1971 war, which Pakistan lost so pathetically with humongous embarrassment. In Tripura, Assam and several districts of West Bengal, today the illegal immigrants from Pakistan & Bangladesh have changed the demography and can pose a threat to the national security interests.

It’s learnt that to achieve its ill-motivated plan, the radicals from Jamaat along with ISI, with support from China, would try to create public unrest sooner than later, in the border areas of West Bengal and Assam, mainly in the chicken neck corridor by provoking one faction of the population against the other and insiders support in form of illegal immigrants are readily available to activate the same. There’s a need to learn from history. It has been seen repeatedly in Punjab, J&K that in situations like riots, the army is often the last option but a sure option to stop such unrest. As the process of calling upon the army is cumbersome and time-consuming, the chances of loss of lives increase. To prevent the same, the state police authorities, as well as the central government agencies like the central police formations, should take cognisance and remain on their toes, appropriately vigilant. Regular flag marches and cautionary advisories to the public, with stern actions against the culprits can be effective tools to control such a situation if it arises. While diplomatically all out efforts must be continued to deter such events with Bangladesh, Pakistan and China; a strong message is also necessary from the Indian side, not to meddle in the security interests of the country, and that is exemplified when cutting across differences among all political parties to come on the same platform to express solidarity with respect to national interest and security concern. India’s interest should be to consider all these factors and ultimately plan to broaden the Chicken Neck Corridor in the near future.

The writer is a security & geo-political analyst, a senior officer of the IAF and served in various state & central government agencies and ministries. Views expressed are personal