Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina swept the country’s 7 January elections to achieve a fourth straight term in power, with her Awami League party winning a heavy majority of the parliamentary seats up for contest. It is another matter that these were not contested in any real sense, as the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had boycotted the polls. This was reflected in a dismal voter turnout of about 40%, less than half the 2018 figure. The BNP had demanded elections to be held under a neutral administration that may have instilled confidence, but the opposition party faced strong-arm tactics instead in a crackdown on protests, leaving the result all too predictable. In spite of tight security across this country of 170 million, several eruptions of violence were reported, with at least a dozen polling centres and a couple of schools set on fire in the hours before voting. As PM for a decade-and-a-half, Hasina was allegedly in a scramble to get poll candidates onto ballots to keep up the pretence of a free election capturing the popular will. “Whether people accept this election or not, it is important to me,” she said, speaking of her accountability “to my people.”
While Hasina retains her title as the world’s longest serving female head of government, a review of her leadership of Bangladesh would reveal why her victory suits India. In comparison with the rightist BNP, the Awami League’s politics has not had Islamist bearings and has been keener to retain warm ties with New Delhi going back to the 1971 liberation of Bangladesh from what was West Pakistan. Given our shared past, this bilateral relationship makes sense, and Hasina has struck a political balance that favours its stability. As PM, her policies also appear to have done the Bangladesh economy a good turn. What was once seen as a byword for deprivation has witnessed impressive gains on poverty alleviation, school enrolment, micro-finance and welfare provisions, even as textile and apparel exports took off to generate jobs and lift its per capita output to a level rivalling India’s. While Hasina’s achievements are commendable, political repression cannot be overlooked. Civic freedoms have been in a tailspin, with global monitors notching Bangladesh down. Even online critics are said to face the harsh end of a digital security law that can take the shape of a rod wielded by Dhaka.
The next election due in the subcontinent is on 8 February, when Pakistan is expected to hold National Assembly polls whose validity is under a cloud because former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has been hobbled in various ways. Khan was ousted in 2022 as PM in an Assembly vote he alleges was rigged by the military establishment against him at America’s behest. According to an invitation piece in The Economist by Khan, a US State Department official got the Pakistani ambassador in Washington to convey a “cipher message” to the effect of “pull the plug on Imran Khan’s prime ministership through a vote of no confidence, or else.” Whatever the truth, it’s a dramatic charge, one that reflects poorly on how power is wielded in Pakistan. From behind bars on various charges, Khan may justifiably be warning that his country is headed for an electoral “farce” as his party is being denied the right to campaign freely. This isn’t good for India either. To forge reliable relations, we need real representatives to work with, and for that, we require a revival of democracy around us.