POLLS

The facts expressed in Prashant Jha's article 'Murkier and murkier' (#392) are sad but true. Same as the national leaders are letting down the nation, the Madhesi leaders are letting down the Madhes. You will need a significant proportion of the vote nationwide to have a respectable voice in the CA, and this election will achieve nothing for Madhesis if the Madhesi parties squabble and fight amongst themselves. What the Madhes needs is unity of purpose amongst its leaders, or the Madhes' problems will never be addressed.

Pushkar,
email

. As campaigning has intensified, so have abduction, extortion, attacks, and threats on candidates and voters. These anti-democratic practices show that law and order are failing, and the government seems reluctant to take any action against the law-breakers. Why are they turning a blind eye? The home minister threatened harsh punishment for those involved in the Madhes movement but he is silent now. The government needs to maintain proper law and order throughout.

Praveen Kumar Yadav ,
Birganj

. I am Indian but I love Nepal as much as my own country. Nepal is the only country which is striving to preserve Vedic Hindu culture. Nepal should be a Hindu democratic country with a passive monarchy like the United Kingdom. Keeping the king as a symbolic head of state will preserve culture and avoid sycophancy and dynastic party rule as happened in India. Hindus all over the world will also be very happy that at least one country is preserving their culture. Nepal has nothing to lose with a figurehead king. If you look at countries in the world now, monarchies are more stable and responsible democracies than republics.

Sreeram,
email

. Many thousands of Nepali citizens will not have the chance to vote in the CA election. These include about 60,000 election observers, perhaps 1,500,000 Nepalis who are living abroad, and countless numbers who can't return to their homes to vote. As the number of people voting will already be smaller than it should, I really hope it will not be made even smaller by violence and intimidation of voters around the polls. I hope the government, political parties and observing groups will do their job to prevent violence on election day. We owe this to Nepal.

Kishor Rajbhandari,
email

ENVIRONMENT

Apart from carbon emissions in the atmosphere causing climate change in Nepal (see 'Climactic change', #393), we also have massive problems of forest clearance, pollution and unplanned building which are clear for everyone to see. We can't just blame other countries' carbon emissions for our environmental problems in Nepal as we are also responsible for them. We should do something to address this right now or future generations of Nepalis will suffer.

Sanat Dhungel, Auckland,
New Zealand