India, Feb. 15 -- The February 2026 election in Bangladesh will go down in history as one of the most consequential for many reasons, but one among them will be the absence of the Awami League in it. The election was free and fair, but not inclusive. While the Awami League is to blame for its predicament, it is for the people to pronounce their verdict on its record, and the democratic way to do this is through the ballot. The decision to keep the Awami League out was taken by a cabal of individuals lacking constitutional authority. The disenfranchisement of the party in this round does not mean its demise, just as the problems faced by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami in the past did not lead to theirs.

Having ...