India's Middle-East challenge

By: Sundeep Waslekar/Forbes India

The Arab World is in a state of flux. Leaders are going out, leaders are coming in. It is an opportunity for India to renew its ties to the region

On Friday, December 17, 2010, when most Indians were watching a cricket Test match between India and South Africa (in which Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla tortured Indian bowling with a 200-run stand), a sad but momentous event took place in a small town called Sidi Bouzid in faraway Tunisia. A 26-year-old street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself afire in protest against corruption and harassment by police. This isolated incident would anger Tunisians so much that a revolution would ensue and overthrow the 23-year-old regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Within weeks, it would spread to Egypt, Libya and several other countries in North Africa and the Middle East, finally blossoming into the Jasmine Revolution. The Arab World would stand redefined and several countries