DNA Edit – Hasina’s triumph: Awami League’s victory is a shot in the arm for India

For India, the return of Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister for a third term in Bangladesh, is welcome news. Hasina, daughter of the legendary founder of the country Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, is an old friend of India, whose family had lived in New Delhi, just when the new country was coming into existence back in the turbulent early 1970s.’ During the course of the infamous Pakistani crack down, when the rest of the world, including the US, had turned their backs on the travails of what was then East Pakistan, India had come forward to offer a helping hand. The rest is history. Happily, that friendship has endured. As a matter of fact, relations between India and Bangladesh in the last few years could not have been sweeter. That the victory is more than vigorous, would be to state the obvious. 

The Awami League and its allies have won an overwhelming 288 out of 300 seats contested. The opposition, a motley assemblage, some of whom boycotted the poll, have been reduced to under 10 seats in a total Bangladesh Parliament strength of 350. To be sure, the elections were fairly bloody and the opposition, including the pro-Pakistani BNP led by Hasina’s long-term rival Khaleda Zia, have alleged rigging, which the country’s Election Commission says it will investigate. Naturally, expectations in South Block have soared with the happy news of a friendly comeback in India’s troubled neighbourhood. Since the passing of the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) in June 2015, ties between the two have been on an upswing. It is also an example of settling a border dispute between two neighbouring countries, if the political will is present.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Neighbours First’ policy, since coming to power in 2014, are paying dividends and is best epitomised in Indo-Bangla relations. It is a far cry from the days when Dhaka, under periodic BNP regimes, had become a hotbed for anti-India intrigues and a hub for Pakistani spy agency ISI, who used the country as a launching pad for sending terrorists to India. In the past, Indian investigators had charged Harkat-ul-jihad-al Islami (HUJI), a terror outfit backed by Pakistan, to launch multiple attacks on the Indian mainland from Bangladesh. If there is one thing better than Hasina’s emphatic victory, it is the near decimation of BNP and its pro-Pakistani cohorts, who once had a free run of Bangladesh. It goes to the credit of Hasina to dismantle the thugs, deport a few to India and neutralise anti-Indian elements such as North East insurgents, who were provided safe havens to organise raids into India. Now, with the BNP out of the way, Hasina would be spared the ignominy of being branded as a pro-India agent by her rival and would thus have a freer hand in dealing with problems in her own country. For India’s largest trading partner in South Asia, Hasina’s comeback could not have come at a better time.