Voters in Bangladesh recently handed Sheikh Hasina, already the world’s longest-serving woman prime minister, a fifth term after being in power for 19 years. Hasina’s victory was a fait accompli given that the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party or the BNP of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia boycotted the election. 

S. Venkat Narayan, a senior Indian journalist and commentator based in New Delhi, was in Dhaka to report the outcome. In a span of 32 hours,  he engaged Prime Minister Hasina twice asking her blunt questions, including about the credibility of an election boycotted by the main opposition.  Venkat Narayan spoke to Mayank Chhaya Reports to explain the significance of the outcome in a country which feels like a virtual fiefdom of Sheikh Hasina whose father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman founded it in 1971. 

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