Nagaland minister Temjen Imna Along has issued a sharp warning to radical elements in Bangladesh who have been making provocative remarks about cutting off India’s strategically vital Siliguri Corridor, commonly known as the Chicken’s Neck. Referring to the martial traditions of the Northeast, Along said tribal communities in the region were well aware of what it meant to “slit throats or necks”.
His remarks come amid heightened rhetoric from radical groups in Bangladesh over the narrow land corridor that connects mainland India to its northeastern states.
Issuing an open challenge, the outspoken BJP leader invoked mythological figures Ghatotkach and Hidimba from the Mahabharata to underline the strength and resilience of the Northeast. According to the epic, both figures hailed from the region. Hidimba, who married Bhim and was the mother of Ghatotkach, is believed to have belonged to the Dimasa tribe, whose presence spans parts of present-day Assam and Nagaland.
‘They have not seen our strength’
Warning against any attempt to undermine India’s territorial integrity, Along said such moves would prove to be a serious miscalculation. “They have not seen our strength. If they haven’t seen Ghatotkach and Hidimba, they are welcome. We will show them what we are capable of,” he said.
The Chicken’s Neck is a narrow strip of land, about 22 km wide at its narrowest point, in north Bengal. It links the rest of India to the seven northeastern states and is flanked by Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and China, making it strategically sensitive.
Along, who is also the Nagaland BJP president, said people from the Northeast understand the region’s geography and realities far better than outsiders. “When it comes to talk of cutting throats or necks, no one understands these realities better than us,” he remarked.
He also dismissed the term Chicken’s Neck as a media construct. “For us, there is no Chicken’s Neck. We are firmly connected with India, and we are proud Indians,” the minister said.
Observers note that Along’s reference to “cutting throats” also carries historical and cultural context. Headhunting, once an integral part of traditional Naga warfare, involved taking enemy heads as trophies before the practice was banned in the 1960s.
“Headhunting was not a sport. It was deeply ritualistic, and Nagas believed divine forces intervened on their behalf,” historian Tuisem Ngakang had earlier told India Today Digital.
‘Both Chicken Necks’
Along is the second senior leader from the Northeast to issue a warning to Bangladesh over recent remarks. Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had responded to similar rhetoric by pointing out that Bangladesh itself has two vulnerable corridors.
“If Bangladesh attacks our Chicken’s Neck, we will attack both Chicken Necks of Bangladesh,” Sarma had said in May. He referred specifically to the narrow corridor in Meghalaya that connects Bangladesh to the Chittagong port, noting that it is even thinner than India’s Siliguri Corridor.
In recent weeks, radical voices in Bangladesh, including student leaders like Hasnat Abdullah of the National Citizen Party (NCP), have escalated their rhetoric. Abdullah had threatened to isolate India’s northeastern states and offer shelter to separatist groups if Bangladesh were destabilised.
The remarks from leaders in India’s Northeast come against the backdrop of comments made by Bangladesh’s interim chief Muhammad Yunus during a visit to China, where he described India’s Northeast as “landlocked” and positioned Bangladesh as the region’s “only guardian of the ocean”.