New Delhi: India has endorsed the Bangladesh polls, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating Sheikh Hasina for her victory in the parliamentary elections, which was boycotted by the opposition in that country.On Sunday, January 7, Sheikh Hasina was declared the winner of the 12th parliamentary polls, which had an official turnout of around 40%. However, an hour before the polls closed, the Bangladesh election commission had said that the turnout was just 27%. Hasina won her fourth election, obtaining an unprecedented fifth term as prime minister of Bangladesh with the Awami League bagging 222 seats in the 300-seat parliament.In the run-up to the election, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had boycotted the polls. Subsequently, many ruling Awami League party members stood in various constituencies as ‘independents’ besides the official Awami League party candidate.In a tweet posted on his official account, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote that he spoke with Sheikh Hasina to convey congratulations “on her fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary election”.Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our…— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 8, 2024He also congratulated the “people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections” and added India was “committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh”.Modi also sent a letter to Prime Minister Hasina.On Monday morning, the Indian high commissioner to Dhaka, Pranay Verma, was the first foreign ambassador to call on Hasina. He was followed by envoys from China, Russia, Bhutan, Philippines, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.There was a conspicuous absence of any congratulations from the United States and other western countries.In fact, the Canadian high commission tweeted that it had not sent any election observer to Bangladesh. “Any individual who identifies as a Canadian observer is acting independently. Their views have not been endorsed by the Government of Canada,” they posted.As per Bangladesh media, a section of foreign observers, including Canadian lawmaker of Indian origin, Chandra Arya and his colleague, Senator Victor Oh congratulated “Bangladesh Election Commission on successfully conducting a free and fair election”. The head of the Head of the Russian election monitoring delegation Andrey Y. Shuvot labelled the elections as “legitimate”. India sent a three member delegation from the Election Commission of India, which issued a statement on Monday.“We have visited a number of polling stations and have witnessed the polling process first hand. We saw citizens of Bangladesh exercising their electoral rights at these stations peacefully,” it observed.The statement also appreciated “the efforts of the Election Commission of Bangladesh and its meticulous planning and arrangements made for the conduct of the election process and facilitating this visit”.However, Election Expert Mission of the EU, joint technical assessment team from the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, and election observers from the Commonwealth have yet to release their assessments. In the Bangladeshi media, there was large amounts of pessimism over the extremely low turnout, which indicated that most of the electorate felt that they had no choice.“The 60 percent of voters who have stayed away are not absentees. They are the face of disenfranchisement in today’s Bangladesh,” wrote The Daily Star in an editorial.