Centre Should Protect its People First: Pradyot Debbarma Amid Bangladesh Unrest and Sheikh Hasina Taking Refuge in New Delhi

With full stability yet to return to Bangladesh, Tripura royal scion and Tipra Motha founder Pradyot Debbarma today said that unstable Bangladesh is a threat to the future and survival of the people of northeast and Government of India should protect its own people first rather than giving asylum to others hinting at former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina taking refuge in New Delhi.

Voicing serious concern about the security and stability of Northeast India, amid renewed heightened fear of influx from the neighbouring country that has been on the boil since July this year, Debbarma highlighted the immediate threat posed by the open border that Northeast shares with Bangladesh.

Speaking on the sidelines of the first conference of the Autonomous District Councils of northeast in Shillong today, Debbarma said, “The biggest problem in the Northeast is infiltration and an unstable Bangladesh, and the open borders that we have is a threat to our future and survival. If the Government of India needs to protect the indigenous people of Northeast, they will have to give us land rights, they will have to give us economic power, and they will have to constitutionally protect us.”

“India’s plan now has to be to protect its own people first rather than give asylum (to former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who fled her country and is now living in New Delhi) and allow people from Bangladesh to cross over and enter India,” Debbarma, who has been fighting for the rights of the indigeneous people of Tripura, said.

Bangladesh and India share a 4,096-kilometre-long international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world, including 262 km in Assam, 856 km in Tripura, 318 km in Mizoram, 443 km in Meghalaya, and 2,217 km in West Bengal.

Also Read: Pradyot Debbarma Concerned Over Increasing Attacks on Minorities In Bangladesh