POST POLL

Great editorial ('Snap out of it', #398), and loved the line 'The NC and UML may be bad losers, but the YCL is a bad winner.' Despite their election victory, and maybe because of it, the Maoists have stepped up their punishment of constituencies where people didn't vote for them. They are still beating up opposition candidates and hounding out NC and UML supporters from areas where they won. What kind of behaviour is this? The Americans are supposed to be thinking about lifting the terrorist tag, and the NC and UML are tempted to join a Maoist-led government. They shouldn't until the use of violence is categorically rejected, and the PLA and YCL are disbanded.

Gyan Subba,
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. I found CK Lal's piece 'Waiting for Goit' (#398) very interesting. Prachanda would be in that kind of situation now had he not realised that violence was a dead-end and decided to move into the mainstream. When the first agreement was reached many people (including me) thought it was a machination to fool the UML and NC. But since then all sides have kept (more or less) good faith, and we can all see how far Nepal has come. It's true Prachanda has still not renounced violence, but I think it is only a matter of time until he does so. Goit has also no doubt read Mao's Red Book thoroughly, but his vision was not clear enough to follow the path of the Maoists towards democracy. His political future looks as if it will be confined to questionable circles in Bihar.

Kishor Kamal,
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. The cynicism that CK Lal displays in 'Among the alchemists' (#397) is not healthy. There is no benefit in taking everything the Maoists do in such a negative way. The NC and UML didn't come to people's doors asking for food like the Maoists did, but they were stealing much more from the people of Nepal than the Maoists have done. Many people chose to turn a blind eye to this. Yes the Maoists do have a lot of mess to sort out. But don't lambast them before they even get started. And, let's remember who got us into that mess in the first place.

Name withheld,
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. Prashant Jha's piece 'South of the border'(#398) was a very good assessment. I also don't think India will act against the Maoist government so long as they stick to basic rules of governance and diplomacy. Up till now the Maoists have been very prudent in this regard. They have been doing their best to reach out to both India and the USA, and I think they will carry on doing so until the constitution is passed in the assembly. I just hope they will be able to control-for good-the YCL and extremists in their own party, as these will be the major threat to peace and security in Nepal.

Alok Dixit,
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ACTIONS AND WORDS

I think the current slogan of an "inclusive Nepal" has already been exposed as a sham by the government's treatment of Tibetans over the last few weeks. These people were just exercising their right, supposedly guaranteed in democratic societies, to peaceful protest, but the government brutally cracked down on them because the protests did not sit well with the ethnic policy of our big brother, China. Nepal can ignore such protests if it disagrees with them, but it is not right to suppress them like it did.

Name withheld,
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NO SHAME

Earning money from any kind of legally and socially acceptable job is not shameful in any way, if we consider the realities of people's lives rather than abstract political dogma ('Just let them try', #397). There is also no reason why Nepalis who go as soldiers to the UK or India or doctors to the USA are committing any more of a crime than those who go as labourers to the Middle East or Malaysia.

Dev Rai,
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