A new diplomatic controversy has erupted after Bangladesh’s interim Chief Advisor and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus gifted a book to a visiting Pakistani military officer that reportedly carried a distorted map showing Assam and other northeastern states of India as part of a so-called “Greater Bangladesh.”
The incident took place in Dhaka on Sunday, during Yunus’s meeting with General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, the Chairperson of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. According to reports, Yunus presented Mirza with a copy of his book titled “Art of Triumph: Bangladesh’s New Dawn.” The cover of the book featured the controversial map that appeared to merge India’s entire Northeast—including Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh—into Bangladesh’s territory.
Images from the meeting were later shared on social media by Yunus himself. Soon after, the photos went viral, triggering widespread criticism from diplomats, security experts, and citizens in both India and Bangladesh. Many called the move provocative and irresponsible, saying it could strain relations between New Delhi and Dhaka at a sensitive time in regional politics. 
The depiction on the book cover mirrors the long-standing and controversial “Greater Bangladesh” theory—an idea promoted by certain extremist and nationalist groups that claim parts of India’s Northeast as historically or culturally linked to Bangladesh. Indian analysts have always dismissed the idea as baseless and dangerous, warning that it could incite unrest in border areas.
This is not the first time Muhammad Yunus has courted controversy over comments related to India’s Northeast. During a visit to China in March this year, Yunus remarked that India’s landlocked northeastern states could be developed as an extension of the Chinese economy, further adding that Bangladesh was the “only guardian of the ocean” for the region. His comments then had drawn sharp responses from observers in India and raised concerns about Dhaka’s geopolitical stance.
Since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year, Yunus has made several statements suggesting that instability in Bangladesh could “spill over” into neighboring countries, including Myanmar, West Bengal, and India’s seven northeastern states. His repeated references to the region have unsettled policymakers and added to tensions in cross-border relations.
Earlier this year, one of Yunus’s close aides had circulated a similar “Greater Bangladesh” map online, while another was accused of suggesting that Bangladesh could align with China to occupy parts of India’s Northeast if a war were to break out between India and Pakistan. These repeated incidents have led many to question the foreign policy direction of Bangladesh’s interim administration.
