Dhaka, Feb. 6 -- Here I am in Singapore, a non-citizen of Bangladesh (although a fellow-Bengali) and celebrating the imminent general election. Why? Because as West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee says, and beautifully so, "Dharmo jaar jaar, utsob sobar" (Religion belongs to the individual, but festivals belong to the community). I consider elections to be the main festival of democracy. Hence, an election in Bangladesh or in West Bengal (which will go to the polls in May this year) or in Britain or in the United States or in Singapore is a festival that belongs to citizens of the world together no matter what their particular nationalist "religion", so to say, is.

Of course, elections are a joke in non-democracies and they are f...