In bilateral dynamics, some ideas arrive quietly; others come screaming out for attention not because they solve problems but because they reveal how power chooses to imagine them. The alleged Indian proposal to use crocodiles and venomous snakes as instruments of border security between Bangladesh and India was once easy to dismiss as a moment of bureaucratic excess, a stray thought that wandered too far from reason. But in the aftermath of West Bengal’s dramatic electoral transformation, that idea begins to look less like an anomaly and more like a metaphor for a changing political logic.
The landslide victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal has done more than redraw the state’s political map. It is set to reshape the language of governance, particularly on issues that lie at the intersection of identity and territory. Borders, once treated as complex spaces of interaction, are increasingly being recast as hardened lines of defence. In such an atmosphere, even crocodiles and snakes begin to sound less absurd and more like misunderstood policy advisors waiting for their moment.At first glance, the idea retains its dark comedic appeal. One imagines reptiles silently patrolling wetlands, embodying a form of organic surveillance that requires neither salary nor accountability. It is a vision that would have comfortably belonged to satire, perhaps even rejected for being too exaggerated. The deeper one examines the political climate that has followed the West Bengal election, the more this imagination begins to align with a broader shift towards spectacle-driven security.
The border between Bangladesh and India is not a static entity that accepts human attempts at permanence. Rivers meander, lands flood, and communities continue their lives with little regard for lines drawn on maps. Managing such a border has always required patience, cooperation, and willingness to accept ambiguity. The crocodile-and-snake proposal, however, offers a different philosophy. It replaces management with menace, suggesting that uncertainty can be solved by introducing greater unpredictability.
