Yunus gifts map to Pakistani general shows Northeast India in Bangladesh sparking anti-India row again

Bangladesh's interim chief Muhammad Yunus handed over a provocative book titled "Art of Triumph: Bangladesh’s New Dawn" to Pakistan's one of the top military brass, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, during his recent Dhaka visit sparks anti-India row again with its embedded map that brazenly redraws borders to fold India's entire Northeast into a sprawling "Greater Bangladesh." This glossy tribute to the last year's student uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina's regime doesn't just celebrate revolution; it peddles a territorial fantasy first flaunted by Islamist outfits like Sultanat-e-Bangla, envisioning Dhaka's dominion stretching over Assam, West Bengal, chunks of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and even Myanmar's Arakan—echoing whispers of expansionism that have long prickled New Delhi's nerves.

The gifting moment, posted across Yunus' X handle, has social media ablaze sparks massive outrage, coming hot on the heels of Yunus' earlier jabs, like his China trip in April where he claims about the Northeast's "landlocked" woes and no ocean access, painting a picture of a leader whose olive branches to Islamabad and Beijing are laced with thorns for India. This episode underscores a fragile scenario where old maps morph into new battlegrounds.The handover unfolded smoothly enough amid high-level huddles, with Yunus beaming as he passed the tome—meant to spotlight Bangladesh's "new dawn", where the offending map distorted India's sovereignty.

Dhaka University's Bengali New Year expo in April 2025, this "Greater Bangladesh" vision got a boost when Yunus' ally Nahidul Islam shared a near-identical sketch online, slyly suggesting West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam as rightful kin.This isn't Yunus' solo act; it's a pattern since Sheikh Hasina's fall. Implications ripple far: strained borders mean trickier Teesta water talks, edgier refugee flows, and a BIMSTEC dream deferred. It's not abstract—it's ancestral lands eyed by neighbors, stirring ghosts of partition and insurgency. Yunus, Nobel laureate turned interim helmsman, walks a tightrope: mend fences with India for stability, one thing's clear—this map isn't just paper; it's a powder keg in an already smoldering South Asia.