Road to Democracy was laid by the common citizens through a revolution in the Northern African country, namely, Tunisia on January 14, 2011 which resulted in the overthrow of 23-year presidency of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after a month-long uprising stirred by the anger at unemployment, corruption and repression.
Voters are for the first time freely electing a 217-seat assembly that will appoint a new government and then write a new constitution. (Times of India, Monday, October 24, 2011) The turnout of Tunisians exceeded all expectations, claimed the elections Chief Kamel Jendoubi. A former political prisoner standing in the queue in front of a polling booth remarked “ It is a historic day , a moment of joy and celebration”.
Another country in the same region namely Libya declared itself liberated on Sunday, October 23, after 42 years of rule by Muammar Gaddafi who was mercilessly gunned down that day.
The people of that region want liberation and freedom to rule by democratic means. Dictatorship has had never enabled the economies to overcome the issues of unemployment, corruption and inequality of incomes and wealth despite abundant natural resources and limited population in those nations.
Controlled capitalism alone can deliver the good in a disciplined democracy.
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As the Arab Spring ushers in a post Islamist Debate; there are certain lessons for South Asia
If 2001 set off a decade that brought radical Islam and global, jihad to the fore, the Arab Spring of 2011 has given rise to a post-Islamist discourse that seeks to reinterpret political Islam within the framework of modern democratic constitutionalism. As inspirational model here is Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which accommodates religion in the public sphere but is a far cry from the precepts of puritanical Wahhabi Islam as represented by Saudi Arabia or the Taliban. In fact, the future of Arab politics is poised to be defined by the struggle between traditionalists and modernists within the Islamic body politic.
In fact, Indian Islam – and India as a whole – can aspire to play a role in current Arab debates similar to that of the Turkish AKP. Unlike classical western secularism India can’t abolish religion from its political space altogether, but is nevertheless a constitutional, democratic order. But influences can also flow in the reverse direction as pointed out in the media. "The BJP, for example, needs to learn a post-Hindutva politics – that stresses democracy and development instead of majoritarianism – if it wants to rejuvenate itself in the context of an inspirational and youthful India".
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