New Delhi, April 19 -- The year 2008 saw three South Asian countries transition to democracy. Nepal turned into a republic, ending 250 years of monarchy. Bhutan became a trailblazer, as the first country in the subcontinent that saw "democracy from above," with the Monarch abdicating his powers in favour of electoral democracy. The Maldives did away with a dictatorship that was in place since 1961.
None of these cases come without caveats. Nepal is still struggling to establish a well-functioning democracy and its constitution drafting process was mired in controversies. The benevolence of Bhutan's monarchy is not without a flipside. Maldives did away with authoritarianism only to find itself sliding back into its vortex again. The latest ...