POBNEWS24, Dhaka Sept 9, 2024 : Seven Sisters have been discussed on social media since the change of government in Bangladesh. In the north-east of India, the seven states bordering China, Bangladesh and Myanmar are collectively called the ‘Seven Sisters’.
Although these states depend on each other, they are distinct in terms of culture and environment. Most of the people of these states belong to various tribal castes and tribes. These seven states or Seven Sisters include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser to the new interim government of Bangladesh, gave an interview to Indian channel NDTV just two days before assuming office. There he said, “If you destabilize Bangladesh, the flames of that instability will spread like an eruption outside Bangladesh, Myanmar, Seven Sisters, West Bengal – everywhere.”
In several interviews given to various Indian newspapers and channels in the days before the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, he uttered roughly the same warning, and each time referred to India’s northeastern region as the ‘Seven Sisters’.
Much has been written about the scenic beauty, abundance of natural resources and cultural diversity of India’s Seven Sisters – but also the fact that the region has been plagued by armed movements against the state for years.
In fact, after India’s independence in 1947 (barring Kashmir), the first separatist movement in the country was Nagaland. The Naga National Council (NNC) led by A Z Phizo started their struggle for independence in the 1950s.
The NNC was later split off to form the NSCN, which also split into factions loyal to Muivah and Khaplang – but the Naga nationalist movement for a sovereign ‘Nagalim’ or Greater Nagaland has not completely stopped even today.
Bangladesh and Seven Sisters
Joramthanga, the two-time chief minister of Mizoram and the supreme leader of the Mizo National Front told this reporter in an interview a couple of years ago that without the help of Bangladesh, their Mizo nationalist movement would never have seen success and Mizoram might not have emerged as a separate state.
In fact, the rebels of the Mizo National Front (MNF) were sheltered in the territory of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) almost from their birth in the late sixties, which continued for almost two long decades.
MNF’s legendary leader Laldenga lived in a house in Dhaka’s Lalmatia area under the hospitality of the East Pakistan government, while the group’s training camps were in and around Sajek Valley in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The then young Joramthanga was the loyal aide and shadow companion of Supreme Commander Laldenga. He and many of his teammates spent most of their lives in Bangladesh until India’s 1987 Mizo Peace Accords paved the way for a separate Mizoram.
The same is true of many of the top leaders of Khate Assam’s separatist group Alpha, such as Paresh Barua, Anup Chetia or Arvind Rajkhowa. They were on the soil of Bangladesh for most of their armed movement.
Many members of Tripura’s armed separatist groups, the NLFT or the Tripura National Volunteers (whose leader Vijay Kumar Rankhal is now a mainstream politician) have also taken refuge in Bangladesh, operating from there.
While the BNP was in power (1991-96 and 2001-06), the Bangladesh government, however, never acknowledged the existence of these groups on their soil – and this issue also caused great bitterness in Dhaka-Delhi bilateral relations.
A dramatic change took place in this scenario during the second term of Sheikh Hasina’s Prime Ministership in 2009.
Announcing a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ against militancy, the Hasina government began handing over one separatist leader after another, secretly or openly, to India. The training camps of those groups on the soil of Bangladesh also started to be closed one by one.
Alpha leader Paresh Barua, however, left Bangladesh and moved elsewhere. But other leaders of the group like Anup Chetia or Arvind Rajkhwa returned to India by then and started ‘peace talks’ with the government.
Because transporting goods by road from Chittagong Port instead of Sittwe Port in Myanmar was much easier for Northeast India. As a result, in one word, Bangladesh’s role in the overall development and prosperity of ‘Seven Sisters’, especially in the past decade and a half, was immense.
A few years ago, the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, said in a press conference in Dhaka, “What I have given to India, they will remember for the rest of their lives!”
Although there was a lot of talk about that much-discussed comment, Sheikh Hasina never broke down or clarified what exactly she had said that day.
But observers and analysts in both countries believe that he was referring to bringing back peace and progress to the Seven Sisters that day – the region that India is renegotiating after the change of power in Dhaka!
Indian officials and observers also reluctantly accept the contribution of the Sheikh Hasina government behind the fact that the northeastern region of India, namely the Seven Sisters, has been very stable and peaceful in the past decade.
Another major gift of the Sheikh Hasina government to the Seven Sisters was to allow India to use Bangladesh’s Chittagong and Mongla ports.
Access to these two ports not only opened up new horizons of maritime trade to the landlocked Seven Sisters, but also greatly reduced the geographical distance from mainland India. If the Matarbari port is opened, that opportunity will increase for sure.
The importance and necessity of the implementation of the Kaladan Multimodal Project through Myanmar by India has also decreased as a result of the Bangladesh government’s decision.
