CK Lal in "Tunak tunak tun.... tarara" (#56) purports to quote the conversation he had with me at the Nepali Times Anniversary Reception. May I clarify the actual content of our conversation? Mr Lal stated, apropos of Indian Army's recruitment of Nepalese nationals, that India was recruiting its "cannon fodder" from Nepal, because she did not want to send her own people to die in Siachen. I replied to this "Do you really believe that a country of one billion people has difficulty in finding people in its own country to join the Army or die for the country?" Mr. Lal respondcd by asking why India was continuing its recruitment of "poor Gurkhas from the Nepalese hills" into the Indian Army. I reiterated that India could recruit her own people, but that the recruitment of the Gurkhas from Nepal was a matter of convention and tradition dating from the British period, which was now continued out of India-Nepal friendship, and that it was wrong and unfair to call the Nepali Gurkhas "cannon fodder". It is deeply regrettable that a coloumnist of Mr CK Lal's outstanding abilities and reputation should have chosen to so distort a conversation for whatever point he was trying to make

Nagma Mallick

Indian Embassy, Kathmandu


CK Lal's article on India-Nepal relations is poignant. It shows how our relationship with India has become unequal by our own shortcomings. While we are all very happy to bash India, we have not realised that India has a very committed and professional cadre of workers, particularly in the Ministry of External Affairs. Why should these people have to always treat Nepal with favour? Special favours are a privilege, not a right. And we have not provided any favours to India. If anything, we are the first to bash our "big brother". We should be able to match up to India, not by currying favour, or by making under-the-table deals, but by becoming a well-educated, well-informed nation. Unfortunately Nepal's education is headed in the opposite direction. The left parties and of course the Maoists have taken a hardline stance against private education, and are trying to bring equality by bringing our educational institutions to Year Zero (which is, sadly, where the government schools are right now). The government, the opposition parties, and the underground revolutionaries should first create exemplary public schools before destroying private ones. Be creative enough to provide guidance and support to private education, don't give us cheap sloganeering. Well-educated Nepalis are needed to run the country, and it is best if they are produced on our own soil rather than across the border.

Shanta Dixit

Patan