Sushma Swaraj would probably be relieved that Hansraj Gangaram Ahir is not a political heavyweight, and only a junior minister in the Modi government. Else a tidal bore of indignation and protest would have swept up the Padma, and South Block would have much damage-containment on its work-sheet after the minister of state for home affairs contended that Bangladesh was a “bigger challenge” to national security than China or Pakistan.

While those two known adversaries had often committed territorial aggression, Ahir maintained that the aggression from the eastern neighbor took the shape of a population assault. “I know because I see it closely” he said at a Homeland Security Conference in the Capital. “Bangladesh is only a so-called friend because evidently it has caused India most harm through illegal intrusion”, he was quoted as saying in a press note from Assocham, organisers of the conference, “and as such going ahead it is only smart technologies which will help us curb this menace”.

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The minister, who hails from Maharashtra, had recently visited the easten frontier regions. While the conference did focus on using hi-tech aids to enhance border security, Ahir’s bracketing Bangladesh with Pakistan and China is a new “take” on national security priorities.

Only a few days back the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, had extolled Indo-Bangladesh relations when launching a new railway service from Kolkata to Khulna. Mrs Swaraj’s trips to Dhaka have been projected as highly successful by the MEA, and India had recently airlifted consignments of relief material to help Bangladesh manage the influx of Rohingya refugees.

So are North and South Block on different pages? From a narrow political perspective it is not difficult to see from where Ahir is coming for the BJP has consistently slammed illegal immigration from Bangladesh and insisted that the demographic balance has been overturned in several areas straddling the border. Indeed even in New Delhi do BJP leaders blame illegal migration for a host of civic shortcomings. Hence the minister’s contention is not out of sync with the party line.

However, given the “delicate” regional balance Ahir’s “strategic formulation” might not go down well. Particularly since Bangladesh has been backing India on several issues. To be fair, at the same event Ahir also came down heavily on China and Pakistan, and for good measure also blasted the National Conference chief ’s theory that POK “belonged” to Pakistan.

But was a conference focused on technological aids to border management the occasion to propound theories on regional relations? There would be much truth to the argument that the present government is a twoman army, but it has no dearth of loudmouths. The Prime Minister generally ignores the lesser lights of his team, but as with Ahir and Bangladesh they often create national embarrassment.