Guwahati: Senior Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday said it was unfortunate that the country’s foreign policy has “weakened” to such an extent that even Bangladesh, whose independence India had supported, has turned against it.
Gogoi, the deputy leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, was reacting to Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s statement calling his country the “only guardian of the ocean” in the region.
Yunus urged China to extend its economic influence to his country, mentioning that India’s northeastern states being landlocked could prove to be an opportunity.
“It is unfortunate that India’s foreign policy has weakened to the point where even a nation whose independence India actively supported is now leaning toward strategic opposition,” Gogoi, the MP of Jorhat in Assam, said in a post on X.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently wrote to Bangladesh on the occasion of its National Day, highlighting the ‘strong ties’ between the two nations. After that Muhammad Yunus’s recent remarks about Northeast India and China are deeply concerning and unacceptable, as they undermine India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.
Yunus apparently made the comment during his recent four-day visit to China. A video of it surfaced on social media on Monday.
“The seven states of India, the eastern part of India, are called the seven sisters. They are a landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean,” he said.
NDA leaders of the Northeast condemned the statement as “offensive and provocative”.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called for prioritisation of exploring alternative routes connecting the Northeast to the rest of India, bypassing the ‘Chicken’s Neck’.
“The statement made by Md Younis of Bangladesh, the so-called interim Government referring to the seven sister states of Northeast India as landlocked and positioning Bangladesh as their guardian of ocean access, is offensive and strongly condemnable,” he said.
“Such provocative statements by Md Younis must not be taken lightly, as they reflect deeper strategic considerations and longstanding agendas,” he added.
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