Bangladesh To Hold Parliamentary Elections On 7 January, With Strong Backing From India, Amid Intense US Pressure

Bangladesh has announced that it will hold parliamentary elections on 7 January, reported Reuters, amid intense pressure and continuous efforts from the United States to destabilise the Sheikh Hasina government.

The current and longest-serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, is seeking her fifth term in these upcoming elections.

This announcement comes amid strong Indian backing for Hasina's Awami League (AL) party, against intense efforts from the US and other Western powers, including the UK and the European Union (EU), to meddle in Bangladesh's internal affairs.

Bangladesh is undergoing deadly protests from opposition party workers, primarily from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is threatening to boycott parliamentary elections if Hasina does not step down as Prime Minister, and the elections are conducted under a neutral caretaker government — a demand supported by the US, UK and EU.

Multiple BNP leaders including, Khalida Zia, the chairperson of BNP, and the wife of military dictator Ziaur Rahman, are under house arrest for corruption.

It is worth noting that the BNP has a history of strong relations with Islamists and has repeatedly been involved in supporting anti-India activities on Bangladeshi soil whenever it has come to power.

Both times when the BNP was in power, in 1991 and in 2001, it took the country close to not only Pakistan’s but also China's orbit.

It also supported and provided space to anti-India northeast guerilla groups.

Even as the US asked Hasina's government to hold "free and fair elections", India has stood by and given strong support to Hasina.

India’s political leadership, as well as top officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), took this up during their interactions at various levels with their counterparts in the US, UK, and EU.

Several senior MEA officials told Swarajya that India explained the political scenario in Bangladesh to the Western nations and elaborated on the links between the BNP and radical Islamist forces.

At the just-concluded ‘2+2’ dialogue (between the US and India's foreign and defence ministers) in New Delhi, India reiterated its stand on Bangladesh elections.

At a press briefing at the end of the '2+2' dialogue, India’s foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said, — "We did discuss very extensively regional issues and as far as Bangladesh is concerned, we shared our perspective very clearly."

It is learned that Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that "unwelcome interference" in the poll process in Bangladesh would jeopardise regional security and stability and would not be in the US' long-term interests.

India also explained to its friends in the West that interference in Bangladesh’s elections would boomerang. Such interference and pressure would result in Dhaka stepping into China’s embrace to ward off Western pressure.

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