Hasina Wajid’s Puppet Regime Fulfills
Indian Interests By Sajjad Shaukat (JR161SS41)
Since the leader
of the Awami League (AL) and Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wajid
came to power, she has been fulfilling Indian interests.
General elections were
held in Bangladesh on
December 30, 2018. The
opposition parties, foreign governments, media and human rights said that the
ruling party was involved in vote-rigging in the elections which were marred by
deadly clashes and a crackdown on the media.
Human Right
Watch said on January 2, 2016; “An independent and impartial commission should
investigate the serious allegations of abuses in the Bangladesh election,
including attacks on opposition party members, voter intimidation, vote
rigging, and partisan behavior by election officials in the pre-election period
and on election day…a campaign marred by violence , mass arrests of the
opposition and crackdown on free speech…Thousands of opposition supporters were
arrested before the election… At least 17 people were killed in violence
related to the voting on election day…voters being denied access to polling
places, ruling party activists occupying polling places and casting ballots in
the place of voters, electoral officials and the police behaving in a partisan
manner, and violations of voter privacy in an atmosphere of blatant
intimidation. The opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) said its polling
agents were denied access in 221 constituencies…The election commission
announced that the ruling Awami League won the December 30, 2018 election,
returning Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a third consecutive term, with the
ruling party winning 288 of the 298 parliamentary seats contested. The prime
minister said the election was free and fair, while the opposition described
the election as farcical.”
In this regard,
internationally recognized election monitors and foreign journalists were
largely barred from the country, while
Bangladesh authorities arrested journalists for their reporting regarding the
control of the ruling party and the officials of voting locations, intimidation
of the opposition and irregularities in the elections.
High-speed
mobile internet services and a leading television channel were shut down
for polling day in an apparent attempt to prevent people organising rallies.
However, the 96%
margin of victory of the P.M. Sheikh Hasina strongly indicates towards
the one-sidedness of the
elections and brought to fore the inequality
of the contest. Sheikh Hasina
has now transformed into an increasingly
authoritarian leader, consolidating grip on power. The opposition however, rejected the lopsided results and demanded fresh elections.
It is notable that Sheikh Hasina’s consolidation of power
implies that former P.M. Khaleda Zia will continue to languish in prison as
long as AL is in power. Her son Tarique Zia has obtained political asylum in
the UK and has scant chances of returning to Bangladesh to get his mother out
of the dungeon.
Election results are however, viewed with criticism as political analysts are expressing
surprise that Awami League (AL) has
fared even better than it did in the last national polls in 2014, when
the opposition had boycotted the elections and many seats were contested by a
single candidate. Even in New Delhi, there are some political analysts like Kanchan Gupta who felt that Bangladesh
has become a “one-party democracy”,
President of Bangladesh Political Scientist Association namely Ataur Rahman stated
that the sweeping nature of Hasina’s victory raises “serious doubt” about the fairness of the election. Someone
exclaimed that “In Bangladesh, the development
story is an upward curve and the democracy
story is a downward curve”.
Captions of International media are more interesting. TIME
titled ‘They Threaten Everyone, Sheikh
Hasina’s Landslide Win in Bangladesh Marred by Voter Suppression”.
German news outlet DW entitled, ‘Has
Bangladesh’s ruling party won a ‘managed’ election?’ and The Economist
commented with the title, ‘Bangladesh’s
prime minister wins a fourth term, in ruthless fashion’.
United Kingdom,
European Union and the United States have called for investigation into the alleged election
abuses and irregularities, including intimidation of the opposition. Particular,
the US expressed concern over
the “credible reports of harassment, intimidation, and violence” before the
elections, which made it difficult for several opposition candidates to hold
rallies and meet their supporters.
In fact, a
majority of the Bangladeshi people does not like Sheikh Hasina’s (And AL’s) pro-Indian policies and favourtism, which are
also creating deep dissent in Bangladeshi society. AL also intends to keep Begum Khalid Zia
out of the elections, fearing that she can retain power. Therefore, all these
despotic measures taken by the Bangladeshi government to keep Hasina Wajid in
power in accordance with the direction of New Delhi.
Hence, the win
of Sheikh Hasina was jubilated by India as her Prime Minster Nareddra Modi was
quick to congratulate her. Bangladesh-India ties will receive a further boost
based on the continuity. Another area to foster Bangladesh-India cooperation is
“Pakistan Bashing & insinuations” in shape of fabricated allegations of
terror-supporting plans. In the recent past, Pakistan’s top intelligence agency
was alleged for attempting to assassinate Sheikh Hasina and her family members,
including AL leaders. As Dhaka is expected to organised golden jubilee of
independence in 2021 such insinuations, media hounding and phony allegations
against Islamabad are expected to multiply and the same may become a joint
venture of Indo-Bangladesh for obvious reasons. As a matter of fact, India is
endeavouring to affect the bilateral relations between these two Islamic
countries.
Moreover, Bangladesh
is also witnessing an alarming increase in the activities of religious
extremists. Based on facts and modus operandi adopted by Indian deep state in
exploiting religious extremists against Pakistan, New Delhi is deceitful
towards Bangladesh, as she also dislikes China’s increasing influence in
Bangladesh. If India is sincere with Bangladeshi people, then why Bengali Muslim migrants to Assam etc. have
been ignored in the recently passed “Citizenship Amendment Bill” by
Indian parliament.
As regards the
pro-Indian tilt, by setting aside the water dispute and border issue with
India, during her visit to New Delhi on April 8, 2017, Prime Minister Hasina
Wajid signed 22 agreements in the fields of
defence cooperation, civil nuclear energy, space and cyber security among
others, following bilateral talks between her and his Indian counterpart. Both
the countries also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) through
which India would extend a line of credit of $500 million to support
Bangladesh’s defence-related procurements.
Bangladeshi
newspapers had showed un-easiness among the masses in Bangladesh regarding the
defense deal between India and Bangladesh. Opposition parties also criticized
the defence deal by saying that Hasina Wajid wants Bangladesh to become a
colony of India. The BNP had already warned on March 7, 2017 that the people
would not accept any anti-state defence deal with India, during Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina’s visit to the neighbouring country.
Nonetheless, Hasina Wajid’s
puppet regime has been fulfilling Indian Interests the cost of country’s
people, Pakistan and China.
Sajjad Shaukat
writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic
Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International
Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
