CLOSE TO THE EDGE
I was thoroughly depressed reading Prashant Jha's page 1 story ('Close to the edge', #455). It removed any illusions anyone had that Nepal is a vassal state of India, and New Delhi essentially runs the show here. Prachanda was just the latest victim.

Saman Thapa,
email

* The most insightful scoop that the Nepali Times has ever printed. Thanks to Prashant Jha for telling it like it is. Governments through Nepal's history since 1816 have failed to grasp the geopolitical reality of the Himalayas, which is why they have all come to grief. A simple understanding that we are in India's sphere of influence, and behaving accordingly to extract maximum concessions, would have been a much better foreign policy strategy. But what we have done since the days of British India is to irritate the Delhi Durbar and invite its wrath. After all look at what playing China off against India has got us: we have become India's protectorate.

Jib R Acharya,
Darbar Marg

COP OUT
I would like to point out that this is not the first time our country is facing a political void from lack of clear leadership (Editorial, 'Cop out,' #455). Accountability is the key word and it should start with you, the media and then by all, including the Nepal Police of course. After all, media must take the major chunk of the blame for the current situation that we are in now. In your haste to do away with the monarchy and your willingness to go along with anything and everything opened 'pandora's box'. If we are to find our way, media must provide an unbiased view, as is and fair coverage and not just feed us your individual political opinions and views.

Jyoti Singh,
Kamalpokhari

LAW AND DISORDER
As Mallika Aryal points out ('Law and disorder,' # 455) attacks on school buses, sexually motivated mob violence against a girl in Ratna Park and torturing suspected kidnappers to death in the Tarai are horrifying incidents but more gruesome atrocities were committed by the Maoists during their so-called 'people's war'. Were those responsible ever brought to justice? Instead their leader became the prime minister of this country. A Maoist cadre who proudly confessed to the media that he was responsible for assassinating IGP Krishna Mohan Shrestha and his wife attends receptions organised by human rights groups. What are we going to tell those three tiny school children who were attacked on their way to school last week? Will we tell them that those who stoned them were bad, while those who blew up a bus in Madi and burnt people alive for violating a Maoist banda were revolutionaries who needed to do just that to liberated the country?

Forum for Education and Development,
Kathmandu