Bangladesh will go for its next parliamentary elections for 300 directly elected seats of the parliament on January 7, 2024. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the ruling Awami League, who have been in power since 2009, are expected to sweep through the elections, as the main opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which was uncertain about their poll prospects, has decided to boycott the elections, since they are not being held under a neutral caretaker government. After realising their lacklustre support, the BNP cadres have also indulged in violence. Unfortunately, some of the Western countries, oblivious of Bangladesh’s huge achievements in the last one and a half decades and the provisions of its constitution, are supporting the BNP’s stance.
Commendable Growth
During the last 15 years, Bangladesh, under the dynamic leadership of Sheikh Hasina, has made tremendous progress and has emerged as a bright star not only in entire South Asia but also in the wider Islamic world. During this period, its economy, which was traditionally an agro-based economy, has transformed into an economy overwhelmingly dependent on services and industry. Although, it produces hardly any cotton, it has emerged as a global hub for garments. During this period, its GDP grew at a higher rate than the average growth rate of South Asia. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world at the time of its liberation, it is estimated that Bangladesh will graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Countries (LDC) list by 2026.
This progress is even more significant in light of the fact that Bangladesh is not only one of the most climatically fragile countries of the world, but also the most densely populated large country.
Poverty Elimination
Apart from its stellar economic growth, it has also done extremely well on almost all social indicators. The rate of poverty has declined from 11.5 per cent in 2010 to less than five per cent in 2022. The income disparity has come down significantly, especially in the rural areas. The health and education facilities have improved considerably, and as a result, its Human Development Index (HDI) has increased to a level that is higher than the South Asian average. Its population growth rate has come down drastically to 2.0 (below the replacement rate of 2.1) from 5.85 in 1985, making it a role model for South Asia and the wider Islamic world.
India wants that Bangladesh should not become a safe haven for anti-India forces and a nursery for jihadi terrorists. Under the present government, Bangladesh has proved to be a good neighbour and has pursued policies for mutual benefit and prosperity
Before Sheikh Hasina’s government, the rising radicalisation of the youth had led many scholars to project Bangladesh as a country that was on the pathway of becoming another Afghanistan. In 2005, on a single day, 500 bombs exploded at 300 locations across the country, exhibiting the reach and expanse of terrorist outfits. On July 1, 2016, terrorists affiliated with Islamic State killed 22 civilians, which included mostly foreign nationals and two policemen, in an attack on Holey Artisan Bakery near the diplomatic quarters. Since then, the government has cracked down on radical outfits and has succeeded to a large extent in eliminating them. Although, closeted Islamists continue to thrive and occasionally show their faces, the government has been fairly sincere in tackling this menace. Similarly, the minorities who were being targeted and persecuted under the previous administration have been able to go about their daily chores without any inhibitions. Consequently, their representation in the parliament and other walks of life has increased significantly.
From India’s point of view, like a good neighbour, India wants a stable and prosperous Bangladesh where the aspirations of all sections of society are taken into account. Bilaterally India would want the traditional movement of goods and personnel through the eastern part of South Asia should continue unabated for mutual prosperity, and above all, India wants that Bangladesh should not become a safe haven for anti-India forces and a nursery for jihadi terrorists. Under the present government, Bangladesh has proved to be a good neighbour and has pursued policies for mutual benefit and prosperity. Consequently, India would want the present dispensation to come back to power after the elections; although India would interact and engage with whoever is in power, India’s preference would always be a government led by Sheikh Hasina.
The Western world must realise that while elections in Bangladesh may not meet the ‘Western standards of perfection’, they provide citizens of Bangladesh complete freedom to choose their representatives
Even internationally, Bangladesh has not only contributed the largest number of troops for UN peacekeeping missions but has also collaborated with the countries of the region for overall growth and prosperity. It has enhanced regional connectivity and has eliminated all the sanctuaries that had been provided by the previous government to non-state actors indulging in terrorism across the border. The government has contributed immensely towards global peace and order by eliminating global terrorist outfits and housing a large number of Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar. Consequently, the present government led by Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangabandhu, the father of the nation, enjoys huge popularity and is needed not only for Bangladesh’s prosperity but also for regional
growth and peace.
US Meddling
Unfortunately, some of the Western countries, led by the United States, have been making statements against the government and have gone to the extent of terming the forthcoming elections as not free and fair. The US has even announced that the individuals perceived to be undermining the democratic election process would face visa restrictions. It seems they probably want BNP, which was born and nurtured in cantonments and supported by Jamaat, an obscurantist political force, which was opposed to the creation of Bangladesh and has close linkages with transnational terror outfits, to come to power. These countries are insisting on a caretaker government to be appointed for the elections, a proposition that has been termed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and is not followed in any of these Western countries, which are supporting the forces that are clamouring for it.
It is strange that those who nurtured dictators of all hues, from Ayub Khan to Zia ul Haq in South Asia, are now finding a democratic deficit in a duly elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh. It is stranger that none of these countries has voiced any concern about Pakistan, where a military-backed caretaker government continues to rule in gross violation of all constitutional norms and also takes significant policy decisions, which include pushing millions of Afghan refugees, including women and children to a sub-human existence under the Taliban. The ongoing electoral process there seems to be so warped that its sole purpose appears to deprive Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister and his party ‘a level playing field’.
The Western world must realise that while elections in Bangladesh may not meet the ‘Western standards of perfection’, they provide citizens of Bangladesh complete freedom to choose their representatives and, consequently, their government. It defies logic that the countries that are willing to hobnob with absolute and obscurantist regimes in the Middle East and negotiated with the Taliban, pushing millions of unwilling citizens under an absolutely abominable regime are unwilling to engage with a democratically elected leader, who has taken her country on the path of unprecedented growth and stability.
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