Overview
- Temjen Imna Along rejected portrayals of the Northeast as vulnerable, calling the term “Chicken’s Neck” a media construct and declaring, “We are Indians.”
- He used combative and mythic references, including Ghatotkacha and Hidimba, and said no one knows better how to “cut necks,” while stressing his remarks targeted fringe voices, not all Bangladeshis.
- The comments respond to National Citizen Party leader Hasnat Abdullah’s warning that his party would back separatists in India’s Northeast if India destabilised Bangladesh or interfered in its February elections.
- Abdullah had described the region as vulnerable and threatened to give refuge to “separatists of seven sisters,” amplifying rhetoric around the narrow corridor linking the Northeast to the rest of India.
- Reporting to date reflects a war of words between party figures and a state minister with no confirmed government-level escalation or military moves.