PRIME minister Sheikh Hasina publicly claimed on Friday that ‘it doesn’t matter at all’ if Bangladeshis ‘do not go’ to America and they would, rather, go to other continents for friendship. The prime minister has made this statement in the wake of the recent US ‘visa policy’, under which it would deny visas, or cancel the ones issued earlier, to those believed to be obstructing in any manner the holding of free and fair national elections in Bangladesh, scheduled by next January, and standing in the way of the freedom of expression, holding peaceful protests, et cetera. The visa restrictions would apply to, as the US policy clearly states, current and former government officials, law enforcers, people in the judiciary, politicians belonging to both ruling and opposition camps, and members of families of all the categories of powerful people capable of obstructing fair elections. Understandably, the new US visa regime would be followed by some of its allies in the west and beyond.

Many a governing party leader initially welcomed the US policy, claiming that they believed in fair elections and, therefore, the US policy would not affect the governing circles. But the prime minister’s announcement clearly suggests that her government would conduct the next elections the way it likes, even at the cost of the country’s economic future and that of the western education to be received by children of the financially able Bangladeshis. However, contrary to her claim, the prime minister’s planned move to dishonour America’s geopolitical interests for free and fair elections in Bangladesh, if not president Joe Biden’s pronounced policy to uphold democracy and human rights across the world vis-à-vis the Chinese model of one-party rule and development, would matter a lot to a significant section of the ruling class elites — political, economic and intellectual.

A large section of the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs involved in export and import business with the United States is unlikely to risk their movements to and from America, not to mention their children’s western education, by supporting any more the ruling party design, if any, to stage any farcical elections similar to those held in 2014 and 2018. The case with the current and retired civil and military officers has no reason to be different. Thus, the new US visa policy would force economic and professional elites to leave prime minister Hasina and her political associates alone to make useless efforts to retain power by any elections unacceptable to people in general, its opposition parties and the United States and its allies across the world. Under the circumstances, the prime minister would be well advised to give a second thought to her ‘doesn’t matter’ policy about the United States and honour people’s aspiration for free, fair and participatory elections, on the one hand, and, on the other, save economic and other interests that Bangladesh has with the west in the present phase of our history.