India's neighbours have a democracy deficit
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,
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