CASTE AWAYS
Is it just me who found Prashant Jha's Plain Speaking column 'Caste aways', #457) this week so shocking? Taking a closer look, there are several things very wrong with the whole affair. One of the first promises the communists make to the people is to create a classless society. It doesn't refer strictly to money, but also to a position of a person in the society. By telling the campus chief he is of a wrong caste to be the chief, they are clearly breaking their own ideology. Do as I say not as I do? And by brutally beating a person and making him sign a resignation under duress clearly makes the resignation invalid. Nothing to discuss there. At the court, the government lawyer gets threatened and 'runs away'? Unthinkable in the democratic world. Who rules the court? There is a near riot breaking out and the CDO wants a 'written request'? Is he out of his mind?

Luba Svrcina,
email

CIVILIAN PARTIES
You sound like a cranky kid waking up to find your Narnia gone in your editorial ('Civilian Parties', # 456). Worse still you blame someone else for your impossible dream. Let's clear it, once and for all: the Maoists never promised us peace. They never really claimed they'd give up violence and join peaceful, 'mainstream' politics under a parliamentary system. That dream was of your making. By 'you', I refer to the media, 'intelligentsia', civil society, and political parties of Nepal who banded up together to kick out the king and 'safeland' the Maoists. A lay-person can be forgiven foolish dreams, but those who aspire to political and intellectual leadership of a nation earn their status in society not by advocating fanciful, self-serving dreams but by engaging in serious, clear-headed and impartial thinking that benefits all. Society follows them because we trust them to have done the rigorous thinking expected of them. Instead of whining and pontificating at the Maoists (believe me, they're not listening), use your editorials to tell us what you mean by 'mainstreaming the Maoists' in the first place, and what convinced you it was possible? It is our right to know and your responsibility to answer.

Satyajeet Nepali,
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CRIME WAVE
Your editorial ('Struggle and construction', #457) suggested that kidnapping, murder and instances of violence like the Khyati Shrestha killing are readily employed by political outfits and that such brutality resonates with the current socio-political condition. However, the nature of this particular crime corresponds solely to the fact that the one who murdered Khyati acted to fulfil his greed and had no remorse and no fear of punishment. Crimes of such nature and subsequent impunity have been so rampant, that it will be very hard to get out of this vicious cycle. It can only be concluded that we have no laws that are harsh enough to punish such crimes. Thus, nothing less than capital punishment could be the answer to avert and discourage such murders.

Amit Pyakurel,
Tinkune