Last month on Father's Day, I re-read an old article by CK Lal, written on Father's Day years ago, describing his father and how he wanted CK to study well, despite all hardships. It was a column in The Independent and it touched my heart so much that I have followed his articles ever since. Sadly, he's becoming dogmatic. He looks more like a Maoist ally than a liberal journalist.

I don't know what more the Nepali people and government need to do to please the Maoists. Their militia are in the streets, they kidnap, kill, and threaten, and are above the police and the army. We pray it will be over soon, that they will join the mainstream and be humane. While I see that day getting farther away, journalists like CK Lal are trying to justify the Maoist cause and closing their eyes to all the suffering. It's not fair, especially not from someone as popular as CK.

For me the CK Lal who wrote about the hardships of his father, much like my own, is no more. I can't understand or connect with him anymore. I have lost one more loved one to the red revolution, this time a journalist lost in his rage towards the king and Koirala, and his love for red. He will be proved wrong, sooner rather than later.

Prabal Pandey,
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