Chicken’s Neck is India’s land, no one can lay hands on it: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday asserted that the strategically crucial Siliguri Corridor, often referred to as the ‘Chicken’s Neck’, belongs to India and no one would be allowed to threaten or tamper with it. Addressing a BJP workers’ meeting, Shah said some people had raised slogans in Delhi claiming they would “cut off the Chicken’s Neck”, the narrow strip of land connecting mainland India with the northeastern States.

“Some people raised slogans in Delhi saying they would cut off the ‘Chicken’s Neck’. Why, brother, how will you cut it? Is this your father’s land?

This is India’s land; no one can lay a hand on it,” Shah said. He said Delhi Police had arrested those who raised such slogans, but alleged that leaders of the Opposition ‘INDIA’ alliance had attempted to secure their release.

“Delhi Police put them behind bars. Leaders of the INDIA alliance tried hard to get them released. Their MPs even went to the Supreme Court to argue on their behalf. But in the end, truth prevails. The Supreme Court, too, rejected their bail plea,” the Home Minister claimed.

The ‘Chicken’s Neck’, officially known as the Siliguri Corridor, is a narrow stretch of land — about 20-22 km wide and nearly 60 km long — in North Bengal that connects the rest of India with its northeastern States. It is considered a critical and sensitive lifeline from both security and strategic perspectives. Earlier speaking in Barrackpore, the Home Minister mounted an all-out attack on the TMC Government, accusing it of shielding infiltrators, fuelling social strife and deliberately weakening border security for electoral gains.

He asserted that no other administration in the country was “as corrupt” as the TMC regime.

Projecting the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls as more than a routine political contest, Shah, addressing BJP workers’ meetings in south and north Bengal, cast the battle as a referendum on national security, governance and Bengali asmita, as the BJP sharpened its pitch to dislodge the ruling party amid heightened focus on infiltration, electoral rolls revision, alleged scams and widening social fault lines across the State.

Shah alleged that illegal migration through the India-Bangladesh border had spiralled under the TMC due to “vote-bank politics”.  

“The way infiltration is taking place in West Bengal, it has become a security issue for the entire country. Even after court orders, the TMC Government is not giving land to the BSF for border fencing because infiltrators are its vote bank,” he said at a workers’ meeting in Barrackpore.

He claimed illegal migrants were being allowed to move freely, with the “administration and police looking the other way”. Shah said the Calcutta High Court had noted that the Chief Minister was not cooperating in providing the land required for border fencing. “But I want to assure you that whether Mamata Banerjee gives land by March 31 as directed by the High Court or not, in April, a BJP chief minister within 45 days of forming the government will hand over land to the BSF,” he said.

The HC has directed the state Government to hand over already acquired land in nine border districts by March 31 for fencing, noting that West Bengal accounts for more than half of India’s border with Bangladesh and that large stretches remain unfenced despite multiple cabinet decisions since 2016.

On the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls, Shah accused the TMC of obstructing the Election Commission of India and alleged non-cooperation by the State administration.

“Mamata Banerjee can oppose the SIR as much as she wants, but it will take place to weed out infiltrators from the voters’ list,” he said.

Alleging deliberate obstruction, Shah said state officers were not cooperating with the EC. “Why is Mamata Banerjee afraid? Because once the SIR is implemented, infiltrators will have to leave,” he claimed.

Shah also mounted a sharp attack on the State Government over the recent fire at warehouses housing a momo factory in Anandapur near Kolkata, alleging that the tragedy was the result of corruption and administrative collapse. “I want to pay tribute to all the workers who lost their lives in the Anandapur fire,” he said. “But let me say clearly, this fire was not an accident. Mamata Banerjee’s Government’s corruption is the cause.”

He accused the Government of apathy, claiming a minister reached the spot “32 hours later”.

“Has the administration completely ceased to exist in Bengal?” he asked, alleging the response would have been different had the victims belonged to a “particular community”. “I demand that the chief minister order a full probe into this incident and that the culprits be sent to jail,” Shah said.

In North Bengal, Shah sharpened his political offensive, alleging that corruption had become systemic under the TMC.

“There is no Government in the country more corrupt than Mamata Banerjee’s regime. Corruption has been institutionalised in Bengal,” he said, claiming central funds worth over Rs 10 lakh crore had been siphoned off through syndicates.

“Mamata ji came with the slogan ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’. Today, I can say even the Communists were better than you. You made Gorkhas fight Bengalis, Adivasis fight Kurmis, Rajbanshis fight Adivasis and Bengalis. Other than creating internal conflicts and social strife, you did nothing,” he alleged.

Using Banerjee’s own slogan, Shah remarked, “Maa is unsafe, Manush is suffering, and Mati has been swallowed,” claiming women did not feel safe, common people lived under syndicate pressure and land was being taken over by infiltrators.

Seeking to ring-fence refugee communities ahead of the elections, Shah reached out to the Matua and Namasudra groups, which have figured prominently in the citizenship debate and emerged as a key BJP support base since 2019.

Shah also alleged economic decline under the TMC, claiming that 6,900 companies had either shut down or shifted out of West Bengal between 2011 and 2025, including 110 listed firms.

“The year 2026 is the year to say ‘tata, bye-bye’ to the TMC,” Shah said, calling on party workers to uproot the ruling dispensation and establish what he described as a “Government of patriots and nationalists” in Bengal.