Your editorial "Act locally" (#103) was spot on. Great job. Here is a list of what faces us hapless Nepalis 12 years later:

1. A partyless Prime Minister
2. A dissolved parliament with supposed caretaker government
3. Pending court case regarding the parliament further aggravating uncertainty
4. EC that can't seem to decide which is the real Congress Party (is there such a party anymore?)
5. Two very-power-hungry leaders of Nepali Congress who are keen to try anything under the sun to snatch power
6. Local government minus the local representatives
7. A national shutdown each time there is a royal visit
8. Heightened corruption of unheard proportions
9. Total indifference of the people in public office
10. Complete exclusion of the poor from the development process
11. Severe hindrance for Nepalis to obtain a passport or even citizenship certificate
12. No right to protest
13. Economic growth rate of below 1 percent, population growth rate of 2.5 percent
14. Election date with little scope of elections
15. Government media completely misused daily by the people in power
16. Massive spending on Kathmandu beautification
17. Kathmandu elites oblivious to all of the above, and still partying away.

Now, is this d?j? vu, or what?

Sashi Subedi,
Kalikasthan

. An extreme example of convergent thinking, lack of confidence and vision among political parties and leaders is reflected in the obsession of both factions of the Nepali Congress to keep the party name and symbol. If the Deuba faction was confident of their majority, why could they not come up with a new name and symbol? Ditto for the Girija faction. This shows that both party and party leaders do not have trust, faith and commitment to win the election on their own. They just want to coast on the momentum of BP's name.

Unlike these politicos, the public does not have any particular obsession with the Nepali Congress name or symbol. The political parties also fail to analyse the public mood, which is hopefully looking for a renewed political commitment. A new name, symbol and new spirit would therefore be an advantage. By quarrelling over the tree symbol, both are exhibiting a serious lack of political horizon, wisdom, and confidence to provide people what they want.

Rajeeb L Satyal,
Bansbari