Nov. 7 — In remarks sparking diplomatic sensitivity and wide condemnation, Nishikant Dubey, a prominent Lok Sabha lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed that the time has arrived for India to “reclaim” Bangladesh’s southeastern seaport of Chattogram alongside the districts of Sylhet and Noakhali.
Speaking in an interview with Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI) on Friday, the lawmaker from Jharkhand mounted a sharp critique of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, alleging that these sovereign regions historically pertained to the princely state of Tripura before Nehru supposedly facilitated their transfer to Pakistan during the 1947 partition of the subcontinent.
Dubey asserted that Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur of Tripura had vehemently opposed the post-partition territorial allocations and questioned the legitimacy of the historical referendums in Sylhet and adjacent frontiers. Attributing the 1946 Noakhali riots to Nehru’s political indifference, the MP claimed that the absence of Indian sovereign access to the strategic maritime gateway of Chattogram port remains the foundational driver behind the prolonged economic underdevelopment of India’s landlocked northeastern states. Consequently, Dubey argued that India ought to pursue the recovery of Chattogram, Sylhet, and Noakhali.
The contentious territorial remarks received public support from Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, scion of Tripura’s erstwhile royal dynasty and founder of the regional Tipra Motha party. In a statement posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Debbarma echoed Dubey’s assertions, maintaining that the ceding of territories tied to princely Tripura during partition constituted a profound “historical blunder.” Debbarma further argued that sovereign Indian control over Chattogram port would have alleviated New Delhi’s longstanding strategic anxieties surrounding the narrow Siliguri Corridor, colloquially known as the “Chicken’s Neck.”
Dubey, who represents Jharkhand’s Godda parliamentary constituency—the operational site of the Adani Group’s transnational power export facility—is widely recognized for airing polarising and revisionist geopolitical declarations. His remarks targeting the sovereign territorial boundaries of Bangladesh have triggered sharp reactions across political and diplomatic observers monitoring cross-border relations.
Source: Asian News International (ANI), Statements on X & Daily Ittefaq