I completely agree with Subindra Bogati ('Same old Nepal', #273) that the best Nepali minds are leaving Nepal when they are desperately needed there. He is also right that we have had many meetings here in London that political figures from Nepal have addressed. But I have noticed that successful Nepalis rarely attend these meetings.

It really ticks me off when I see trivial stuff from the diaspora making headline news in mainstream media back home. Nepalis who seem active in political activities here are the same type of people who are active in Nepal. In fact, they seem to be in activism not because they want to help bring change but because it is a platform for their own self-interest. It is time that we start looking at diaspora Nepalis critically as well.

Sandesh Thapa,
London

. As a journalist in Nepal I had many opportunities to talk to political activists. Even our young leaders who sound so promising from outside are hollow up close. Subindra Bogati has portrayed them as they are. Gagan Thapa and other student leaders always said that we could make a better Nepal. They repeated the same mantra for many years and became good orators. The speeches I heard here by Gagan Thapa and Krishna Pahadi were not that different from what I used to hear in Nepal two years ago. The only difference is that they are now active anti-monarchists. The reason we have failed to get good leaders is that we have not demanded enough of them. We encourage them with applause whenever they say anything radical and populist. Frustratingly, that is also what happened at the London meetings. The media is also to blame for giving rabble rousers more prominence than they deserve. Even after the royal coup, Nepali leaders who came to speak in London sounded as confused and visionless as they were before.

Dinesh Gautam,
Wembley, UK