UNACCEPTABLE CRIME
The interview of the prime minister sound good and what he is saying is quite praiseworthy ('Unacceptable crime', # 432). If we have faith in his words, there is no need to worry about delays in writing the constitution, or be nervous about the peace process. However, he seems committed to the country only in his words. The activities of his cadres gives us a different impression of the reality. There's an obvious gap between what he says and what the Maoist cadres are doing. Only when he is able to control his cadre can the Nepali people hope for a peaceful society. He has called the attack on the press "unacceptable," but the hardliners in his parties are challenging him every day-they are openly taking responsibility of the attack and threatening to do it again.

Samir Bhattarai,
email

* I picked up Nepali Times #431 hoping there would be a very strong editorial that would decry the attack on Himalmedia only to find an empty editorial supposedly in protest of the heinous act committed by the Maoist-leaning organisation. I find this a very lazy strategy taken by the media houses to fight back?similar to closure of schools by teachers and closure of hospitals by doctors in the name of 'protest'. Were there empty editorials when the innocent were being killed, property confiscated and people extorted?

Sunil Sharma,
Teku

* The urban middle-class has only now begun to see the true colours of the Maoists. What 13,000 deaths and a decade of destruction was unable to impart, a few antics by the YCL has made it crystal clear: the only objective of the Maoist party is to keep a hold on the state power. Everything else, development of the country and equal rule of law for its citizens, is secondary. During the war years the urban middle class viewed the Maoists as a mere nuisance. Those who are criticising the attack on press today have, in the past, sympathised with the violence and have argued that the war, the murder and disappearance of thousands of Nepalis was necessary to change Nepal. They even vouched for the Maoists in front of the international community so that Maoists were taken as revolutionaries, not the terrorists that they were.

If the Maoists want to remain in power, they shouldn't alienate the middle class. As former king Gyanendra found out two years ago, the buck stops with the people of Kathmandu.

Alaska Subedi,
email

* While deeply sorry at the beatings Himalmedia folks received from Maoist goons, I believe Himal Khabarpatrika and Nepali Times will now become even more popular for having stood up for press freedom.

Ramesh Khatry,
email

* Why does your newspaper
keep referencing Nepali events to medieval Europe ('Promised land', # 332)? When the parties curtailed the King's rights, it was called the Nepali 'Magna Carta'. Loadshedding in Kathmandu is going back to the 'Dark ages'. Is our country replicating the march of European kingdoms 500 years later in a linear, teleological fashion?

Gaurav Kunjan,
email

HELLBOY
I admire your movie critic A Angelo D'Silva's views and his excellent recommendations. However, he, like many other critics seems to forget that movies are meant to entertain and be enjoyed. Not everything is meant to serve some grand artistic design. Hellboy II may not have suited D'Silva's tastes but it accomplished the purpose it was made for?to entertain, like its comic-book beginnings. My advice to the critic: try to enjoy the movies you watch and go easy on your vocabulary.

Shreyash K Piya,
Dhapasi Heights