US-Bangladesh rift: Dhaka defies Washington, to go to polls with Sheikh Hasina as PM

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, November 15

Amidst US-Bangladesh tensions, Dhaka indicated that it would defy Washington by holding the General Election on January 7 with Sheikh Hasina in charge as PM. The US was insisting that Hasina hand over power to a caretaker government. However, the ruling Awami League government says the provision for a caretaker government has been deleted from the Bangladesh Constitution. Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal announced the dates during a live address to the nation. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its far-right allies like the Jamaat-e-Islami have waged a bloody street campaign to force Hasina’s resignation and allow a non-party interim government to conduct the elections. Meanwhile, a detachment from Russia’s Pacific Fleet arrived at Bangladesh’s main port of Chattogram, marking the first such visit in over 50 years, while a consignment of uranium from Moscow reached the country’s first nuclear plant in Rooppur.

The Russian naval flotilla includes anti-submarine warships Admiral Tributs and Admiral Panteleyev and the oceanic tanker Pechenga. The development comes days after Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said a stable Bangladesh was in India’s interest. He also underlined concerns over rising extremism with third-country intervention. The US State Department declined to answer when asked if what is a danger to India, would also be a danger for the US.

At the first Chanakya Defence Dialogue here earlier this month, former Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shamsher Chowdhury said the US should not push Hasina to make political choices. Hasina has refused to act on US bidding for a dialogue with the opposition BNP.