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India.com
5 days ago
- Business
- India.com
China tightening grip on Chicken's Neck using Trishul Niti with Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh; North-East India will..., Beijing will...
New Delhi: By helping Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, China has made it clear how dangerous its intentions can be regarding India. China is continuously expanding its feet in the Indian subcontinent without any hindrance, due to which the pressure on India's Chicken's Neck, which is called Siliguri Corridor, is continuously increasing. What is the Chicken's Neck Corridor? The Chicken's Neck Corridor connects India to North-East India and this corridor is only 22 kilometers wide. China is continuously tightening its grip on it. New reports have claimed that China's activities from Eastern Nepal, Southern Bhutan and North-West Bangladesh are tightening its grip on the Chicken Neck Corridor from three sides. That is, an attempt is being made to endanger the integrity of India. What is China doing at Chicken's Neck Corridor? In a report by Swarajya, Major General (Retired) Avinash Prakash, an expert on defence and strategic affairs, said, 'When India put up strong resistance to the Chinese troops in the Doklam plateau and forced them to retreat, China started looking for other ways to establish its strong presence near the Chicken's Neck Corridor. Bangladesh and Nepal have now given China such opportunities and China is trying to make strategic investments in Bhutan and taking advantage of it, it is planning to establish its strong strategic presence on the Chicken's Neck Corridor.' What is China's deal with Nepal? China is planning to build a 'China-Nepal Friendship Industrial Park' at a cost of one million US dollars in Damak in Nepal's easternmost Jhapa district. Damak is less than 55 kilometers from the India-Nepal border, which forms the western alignment of the Chicken Neck Corridor. This park is the favourite project of Nepal's Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli i.e. KP Oli, who is considered to be the representative of China. Jhapa is Oli's home district and he has included this industrial park project in the list of BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) projects in Nepal. This park is spread over 1,422 hectares. Experts believe that this park can not only be used as a surveillance and logistics hub, but can also become a new safe route for Pakistan-backed terrorists. What is Bhutan's Gelephu Mindfulness City? Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) is a futuristic project, the brainchild of its current king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Spread over 1,000 square kilometres, the GMC is coming up right next to the India-Bhutan border with Assam. Though India is also a partner in Bhutan's project, China is also planning to invest in the GMC, which will be run as a Special Administrative Region (SAR). 'Bhutan is a very close friend of ours and we are partners in this project. But we have to keep a close watch on what China does in the GMC. The Chinese are planning huge investments, and like all Chinese projects, we suspect that the investment in the GMC will also be opaque. So we have to be constantly vigilant,' said a senior IB official. Why is Bangladesh's Lalmonirhat Air Base crucial? The interim government of Bangladesh is taking help from China to revive the Lalmonirhat airbase which has become a matter of serious strategic concern for India. This airbase is located just 20 kilometers from the India-Bangladesh border and is very close to the Chicken's Neck Corridor, which is considered a lifeline for India. India has strongly opposed the possible participation of China and Pakistan. It is reported that the Bangladesh Army has also objected to this decision of the government and said that no outside country will be included in this project. But the Chief Advisor of the Interim Government, Mohammad Yunus, wants to include China in this project at all costs. Experts say that if Lalmonirhat is activated and China has a role in it, then the way will be clear for China to monitor Indian military activities, due to which India's connectivity with the northeastern states may be in trouble. This has become a big challenge for India. What is India's position? Even though India has made Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh aware of its concerns about the Chinese project through its diplomatic channels, the changing political equations in these countries and China's economic penetration are not able to reduce India's concerns. China's clear objective is to put the North East in danger in any way and to make full preparations to surround India. Experts believe that India has counter strategies and resources, but the pressure from these three sides will mean that India will now have to increase its surveillance, military preparations and strategic investments by three times. This 'Trishul Niti' tightening the noose around the Chicken Neck may force India to rethink its geo-political priorities in the coming years.
New Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Avinash Prakash Interview: For me, what matters is what Naangal means to the audience
In Naangal , a kid enters a library and takes in the smell of a book, as he flips through the pages. Another kid is marvelled by the array of colours that form an image on the screen of a theatre, as a film is about to play. While anyone can trivialise both of these acts, these are personal experiences that a kid curious about art and culture, goes through. For Avinash Prakash, the director of Naangal , the film can be expressed as a mix of memories and imaginative storytelling. 'The idea of the film,' he recounts, 'was formed on the basis of the stories I read as a child, back in the 90s. To get access to books I had to go to a lending library in Ooty.' The director's rumination on the passage of time was also an important inspiration for Naangal . 'My childhood was devoid of any electronics. But even then, my siblings and I had less time for the activities we wanted to do. We used to walk around the estate and play sports. Apart from that, books and comics were our only outlets.' Like a lot of kids, Avinash was influenced by comics such as Tintin , Mandrake the Magician , Casper the Friendly Ghost , and Asterix and Obelix . The adventurous protagonists with their carefree lives, inspired him to form the story of Naangal , which was written from the perspectives of children. However, carefree and happy moments are cherished precisely because they can be few and fleeting. Showing the stark contrast between happy and intense moments was an important aspect of Naangal . And the director achieves this through his distinct visual grammar. 'Lensing and cinematography are unique to the art of filmmaking. Adding expository dialogues meant that I was telling audiences what to think, instead of showing what can be imagined. I wanted to provide enough drive for the audiences to watch the film, and take something away from it,' he explains. The term coming-of-age cannot be used fast and loose with Naangal . It isn't your usual story of everything being fine for a character who encounters a momentary hurdle, and after crossing it, the state of normalcy is returned. No matter how grown a character is, everyone has their set of ordeals. Avinash asserts that Naangal is also a slice-of-life film. But that slice is not saccharine like the conventional films in the genre. It has a unique taste to it. He says, 'Children from any kind of family have a transformational phase. Be it a perfect family, or an average family, or a toxic family, every family goes through a certain phase that propels their growth.' Amongst the different ingredients that went into the film, Naangal 's portrayal of parental relationships acts as the dough that brings the different ingredients together. On the uniqueness of portraying those relationships, Avinash chooses to answer from the perspective of his film's protagonist: children. 'When we are kids, we are very impressionable. The behaviours of the parents will influence the behaviour of the children. So, in a situation where the father is the only caretaker for the children, he chooses to be a strict disciplinarian.' While the mother remains in the shadows for most of the film, the director says it was to show her helplessness. He says, 'Throughout the film, we show the children being under the strenuous environment created by the father. The mother acts as a ray of hope for the kids and for the audience. She shows us that the kids can grow up in a different kind of environment too. But a husband, who is imposing, causes an emotional strain. With this, it may seem like she doesn't care about the fate of the children. Instead of verbalising her helplessness, she internalises it. She cares, but she is helpless.' Regarding the relationship between the kids, Avinash says there is no fixed pattern for such a relationship. 'For the outside world, they are going through unimaginable circumstances. But for those kids, they are just surviving. To them that is all that matters,' he explains. While the director made a splash by making his directorial debut with an intimate and personal story, he is indifferent to any labels to define his film. ' Naangal can be labelled an independent film, an arthouse film, or a parallel film. But, for me, what matters is what it means to the audience,' says Avinash.
