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It is incomprehensible that the United States is dealing with Bangladesh and Pakistan at the same time. On the one hand, as part of strengthening democracy in Bangladesh, US visa ban has been threatened if anyone obstructs the fair elections. On the other hand, despite the undeclared military rule in Pakistan, the US is completely silent on the matter. It cannot be said that the United States imposed sanctions on Bangladeshi officials in the interest of democracy. Brahma Chelani, an emeritus professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, India and a former adviser to the National Security Council, said these things in an article. The article appeared in the opinion page of the English version of Nikkei Asia, a Tokyo-based trade media.

Brahma Chelani said in the article, “Besides establishing a secular Bangladesh since 2009, Sheikh Hasina has taken the country to the path of political stability and rapid economic development. However, currently the country’s financial system is going through adverse conditions due to the global economic recession caused by the war in Ukraine. But Bangladesh is achieving enviable growth compared to Pakistan, a country which has been going through continuous political and economic instability. Pakistan is almost on the verge of bankruptcy. However, Bangladesh has been kept out of the 2021 Democracy Conference organized at the call of President Biden and at the beginning of this year. Pakistan was invited both times, though they did not go.

Brahma Chelani said, ‘How to explain this situation, the US President Joe Biden’s administration is on the one hand talking about banning US visas on the officials of Bangladesh who will obstruct the fair elections as a democracy consolidation initiative. On the other hand, even though undeclared martial law has been imposed in Pakistan, the US administration is completely silent about it. But mass arrests, disappearances and torture are being used as political tools in Pakistan.

The short answer to this question, the article says, is that the United States has a long history of consolidating democratic rights, so it is applied in very specific cases. The geopolitical situation acts as a major regulator in this regard. U.S. policymakers have put restrictions on many places that claim to consolidate democracy.

Professor Brahma Chelani said, ‘Biden administration seems to want to take two places seriously through this visa policy. One is that many relatives of the country’s politicians live in the United States and the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son is an American green card holder. And besides, a large part of Bangladesh’s exports go to western countries. The US is a leading destination for Bangladeshi products.

Brahma Chelani, the author of the book ‘Water: Asia’s New Battleground’ said, “Hasina, the daughter of the freedom movement leader, however, stood in the parliament last April and said, ‘They want to overthrow democracy and install a government in which democracy will not exist.’ It would be an undemocratic act.”

According to Professor Brahma Chelani, US sanctions have failed to change the political situation in Myanmar, Iran, Belarus and Cuba. The declining influence of the United States in the global power structure is diminishing the effectiveness of these sanctions. Until now, however, Western countries still control the structure of the global financial system, and the dollar still remains the world’s primary reserve currency. As a result, sanctions are still an attractive approach to US policymakers.

Brahma Chelani says that the US’s latest crackdown on Dhaka does not make much sense. Sheikh Hasina’s government could instead serve as an important ally of the US in the war on terror to boost security in Asia. However, when Sheikh Hasina visited the United States last month to discuss with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), no one from the Biden administration met her.

In Singapore this month, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would not do anything to counter China’s eyebrow-raising or finger-wagging. But this is exactly what is being done in Bangladesh, the United States is moving in that direction.

What the United States is doing now in Bangladesh, the world’s seventh most populous nation, seems to be bringing back sad memories of the stance taken by the Pakistani military in 1971 during Bangladesh’s efforts to gain independence from Islamists rather than free and fair elections. What Washington really wants now?