Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Elections in Bangladesh

For all the political turmoil being witnessed currently in Bangladesh, New Delhi has surprisingly been a quiet observer of the events unfolding in the tiny nation state. Unlike the time when another of India's neighbour's, Nepal, was witnessing political upheaval - a period accompanied by hectic parleys, nothing of the sort is being witnessed in the case of Bangladesh. This is indeed an ironic situation since political uncertainty seems to be rife in Bangladesh.

Since the caretaker Govt has come to power in Dhaka late last year, election boycott has been threatened by the Awami League Grand Coalition or the Maha Jote on various grounds including disagreement over the choice of the chief advisor to the caretaker Govt, the selection of the advisors, the deployment of the armed forces for electoral purposes and over the correction of the voter list. Eventually the AL led 19 party alliance refused to contest elections when the nomination papers of its constituent partner, Ershad of the JAPA party, were cancelled from 5 different constituencies. With the main opposition alliance withdrawing from the electoral process, the country seemed set to hold one party elections - a situation avoided only due to the pressure brought on by US, UK, the EU and the United Nations.The deafening silence from New Delhi seems odd to this analyst as events in Bangladesh obviously affect Indian domestic, regional and anti-terrorism policies. National Security Advisor, MK Narayanan's recent statement attesting to the presence of ULFA camps in Bangladesh along with various other separatist outfits further confounds the lack of a policy oriented response from New Delhi.

Could it be that New Delhi wants to avoid reacting to events in Dhaka, beyond the cursory and cautious statements, to prevent accusations of interference ahead of the SAARC summit? It does seem odd that India would stand on ceremony and not protect its interests in Bangladesh, it is also the only plausible reasoning that can be derived from the situation.

Lack of responses to situations in India's immediate neighbourhood could signal an ominous orientation,or lack thereof, to New Delhi's policies.

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