CK Lal's 'Precursors to peace' (State of the State, #275) is pretentious. By defending the political parties and western-bred ideas Lal and Kanak Mani Dixit in 'Country at the Crossroad' (#275) argue about the finer points of system of governance which has been run aground by 12 years of misrule by the parties. The system is not at fault. It's these politicians by birth who have no sense of democracy. It is in their fiefdom that terrorism was allowed to breed. For them, government was 'by us, for us and to us'. Lal seems to think it is 'fascist' to speak against the party-rebel alliance but why should we allow our neighbour to settle our household dispute? And how come the Maoists are free to interact with the South Block? Do Lal and Dixit espouse the idea of 'end justifies the means'? They see Nepal from their high horse of pseudo intellect. They are only worried about democracy, but not about how to get there. Unless basic fundamentals are in place, democracy cannot flourish. Lets not be misled by people who want only want to jack up their credentials in the eyes of foreigners.

Pravin,
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. It was very unfortunate that CK Lal was rebuked (Letters, #274) for his State of the State column (Military fatigue, #273) regarding the excesses by soldiers in Jaleswor last month. A columnist and political analyst of his repute was accused of bias and unfairly supporting his community, which itself was a sign of chauvinism and narrow-mindedness. The RNA never reflected Nepal's true diversity. Racial and caste-based discrimination is prevalent in the ranks and files .There is an unwritten rule that people from certain castes and races are incapable of being soldiers and are barred from recruitment. Only recently has the army decided to form new platoons consisting of excluded communities. And what of cases like Maina Sunuwar? What if she had been their daughter or sister? A girl loses her life after torture in detention and the perpetrator just gets six months suspension by a secret military court! Incidents like these will just fuel anger and hatred of civilians towards security personnel. If timely steps are not taken, the public's wrath could explode.

Pramod Bhagat,
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