'India must turn chicken's neck into elephant's': Sadhguru on Siliguri corridor amid threats from Bangladesh

Spiritual leader Sadhguru on Sunday weighed in on provocative statements from Bangladesh's interim leadership and subsequent threats around India's Siliguri corridor, arguing that India should strengthen what is often referred to as the "chicken's neck" into an "elephant's neck".

Responding to remarks from Bangladesh suggesting that access through the narrow Siliguri corridor could be disrupted, Sadhguru said India should not have waited for such comments to come. "It's very stupid of us that we have waited for that comment to come. That comment has been made in a third nation where it matters," he said, pointing to remarks made by Bangladesh interim chief Muhammad Yunus in China last year.

In April last year, Muhammad Yunus, during a visit to China, said, "Seven states of India, the eastern part of India, called seven sisters... they are landlocked country, landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean. We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region. So this opens up a huge possibility. So this could be an extension of the Chinese economy."

Since those remarks, several political and student leaders in Bangladesh have spoken about cutting India off from its northeastern states by blocking the Siliguri corridor - a narrow land stretch in North Bengal that connects the region to the rest of the country.

"There is a particular part of our geography which is only 22 km in width. This is not the way to create a nation," Sadhguru said, suggesting that a mistake was made during the Partition. He argued that while India may not have had the authority to address this anomaly at the time of Independence, it did have the opportunity later. "Maybe in 1946-47, we didn't have the authority to do that. But in 1972, we had the authority, we did not do that."

Referring to the growing focus on the Siliguri corridor, Sadhguru said, "Now this chicken's neck that people have started talking about. It's time we nourish this chicken's neck. We nourish this chicken, so that it evolves quickly into an elephant."

Using the metaphor repeatedly, he added, "So nations cannot be made just by being chicken. It has to grow into an elephant. Maybe it needs nourishment. Maybe it needs some steroid. Whatever is needed, we must do."

He said the current debate has brought an unavoidable issue into the open. "Now they brought it to the fore. It'll inevitably happen. But anything that we try to do has costs, has a price to pay always," Sadhguru said, acknowledging that corrective measures would come with consequences.

Placing the issue in a broader context, Sadhguru said the ideal world would have no borders at all, but warned against pretending that such a reality already exists. "It would have been wonderful if there were no nations in the world, no borders in the world. That this beautiful planet was not cut like a birthday cake into pieces," he said. "But we are still in that level of existence."

He cautioned against what he described as unrealistic idealism. "Suddenly, we cannot imagine tomorrow we're going to embrace everybody and live wonderfully. That is a foolhardy thinking right now. It's an aspiration. Someday we must become like that," he said. For now, he argued, sovereignty remains essential. "But right now, maintaining sovereignty of nations is important."

Drawing a historical parallel, Sadhguru pointed to Europe's post-war transformation. "This may sound impossible right now, but that's how it seemed in 1944 in Europe. People fought bitterly. Bitterly means the worst possible way, World War II. But see, today they are all European Union. So, it's possible to do that," he said.

He said the Siliguri corridor issue itself is relatively recent in historical terms. "Anyway, this anomaly happened only 78 years ago. Some correction is needed. Correction must happen," Sadhguru said. "I think we need to feed the chicken well and make it into an elephant. An elephant's neck would be easy to handle."