Nepal, Feb. 21 -- For South Asia, 2024 was an eventful year. A pro-democracy student uprising in Bangladesh ousted Sheikh Hasina who took refuge in India. Sri Lankans voted in President Anura Dissanayake from a party that once waged a Marxist insurgency.

In India, voters withheld whole-hearted support for the BJP's divisive religious extremism. But the defeat of the AAP in Delhi this month showed that the ruling party will go to length to influence elections.

Pakistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives also had elections last year. And in Nepal, the two biggest parties, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML ousted the Maoists and formed their own coalition government, appointing K P Oli as the country's 14th Prime Minister in 15 years.

All thi...