It is improper to claim, in a letter by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina to Indian Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi stating wrongly that both are elected and given the same level of popular mandate. The letter would have had an otherwise over joyous serenade into the ears of Mr. Modi, but, unfortunately some spoiler phrases have ruined it. Apart from eulogizing Mr Modi, the letter invited him to visit Bangladesh as the first destination of his official visit abroad, as his assumed second home. That is courteous and Mr Modi will be welcome by the people in the hope of better and more reasonable relationship between the two countries. He will be welcome for his honesty and people’s leadership without stating precisely. Hasina on Friday felicitated Modi on the resounding victory of BJP in the Lok Sabha elections and praised his ‘dynamic, inspiring and visionary leadership qualities.’ At a point the letter surprisingly read, ‘I firmly believe that with the mandate given to both of us by our respective peoples, we shall be able to work together to take our relationship to increasingly greater heights.’ This letter with the above quoted part was published in a section of Indian press also. But the basis to work together has been ‘the people’s mandate’ given to both Sheikh Hasina and Modi surely would not make the Indian Prime Minister feel flattered. Our Prime Minister won voter less election and has not received popular mandate, while Narendra Modi made history by massively winning in free and fair elections single handedly crushing family dynasty of Congress Party. Even then the leaders of Congress had no hesitation in accepting the crushing defeat. In our country all the election engineering including the Constitution was changed to leave out the oppositions. For winning 153 seats for ensuring majority in the parliament indoor politics of Awami League coalition was enough. Perhaps weakness the election in Bangladesh unconsciously found expression of people’s mandate through voter less election. We are certain that our Prime Minister would also be embarrassed had she known it earlier. There was no need to allude to our election situation. The massive popular verdict as expressed in the general elections held all over India has been played down by comparing Modi’s victory with highly disputed voter less election of Bangladesh. Both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia were trying to be extra nice to the newly elected Prime Minister of India. He deserves it. But such felicitations should not be used as competition for political expedience of one party or another. That would not be dignified. We must make our independence meaningful accepting people’s sovereignty as a basis of governance.
