I am really shocked at China's new position on Nepal in the piece you translated from Nepal magazine ('India and China sacrifice Nepal', #247) and its approval of India's control of our Kalapani area. China is Nepal's most reliable friend and has denied making such an agreement. Another jolt was reading that China had accepted Nepal as being included in India's sphere of influence. We respect India and the Indian people but its position regarding Nepal is dubious.
China and India are our big brothers. They should not try to solve their border problems at our cost.
Dr Tahkur Subba Thebehang,
email
. The arguments by 'Name withheld on request' (Flop-flip, #248) could be genuine if the writer clarified what 'kleptocratic theory' is motivating donors also towards a 'kleptocratic culture'. The points raised are reflective rather than explicit. Kleptocracy is rampant in almost every institution in contemporary Nepal-it's only a matter of degree, norm and definition. The 'kleptocratic culture' is not an offshoot of just the 1990s but an accumulation of practices from the Rana regime to the Panchayat polity under the active leadership of the monarchy. Why hasn't the letter writer delved into these problems? Indeed, post-1990 experience did not fulfil the minimum expectations of the people and political leaders abused the people's mandate. But there are many aspects of multiparty democracy that are worth appreciating. The writer seems to have very little faith in multiparty democracy and is uneasy to even sign his letter for no obvious reasons while giving his debatable monolithic comments. We can debate fruitfully-both subjectively and objectively-while not being biased, that is what the true Nepali intelligentsia needs to practice now.
Badri P Bastakoti,
email
. When CK Lal overtly advised us to overlook Girija Babu's past and concentrate on the parties' united stand (for how long one wonders!) it's not difficult to gauge Lal's predilection for Kangresis (State of the State, #248). Lest we forget Bijen Jonchhe's invaluable sermon on bickering parties in the same issue ('Lest we forget'). It will be better for your paper to sport another gauge in the mast head for impartiality.
We all know that the critical situation prevailing in the country compelled the government to rein in the otherwise free press but the resulting hue and cry of the media has been so much out of proportion that it reeks of malicious and dubious motives. Recent history of the Nepali private press pertaining to the issue of foreign investment, Lauda scam amply vindicates the truth about how the media have been systematically and intermittently used as a pawn by some sponsors. For a private media sustaining itself on scoops of macabre, relentless and gruesome slaying of the populace, February First threatened it with extinction. What other information could the media have found to cash in on other than atrocities of Maoists? When FM popped out the news of death toll, indefinite blockades, chakka jams each passing hour it became unbearable for most people. The least the government could do and has done was to rein in the misguided fourth estate.
The press needs to restrain the obsession of over-exercising its freedom and follow well-charted journalistic ethics in these troubled times.
Binod Keshari Poudel,
Lalitpur
