It is high time CK Lal left his pedantry and climbed down from his academic perch. Our problem now has nothing to do with values ('A clash of values', #190). It is about actions. What kind of values do Ram Chandra Poudel and Bam Deb Gautam stand for? In place of these tainted leaders, parties should put people who have lived by their values. The king can't run this country on his own. Parties are indispensable. But parties must produce a clean leadeship. CK Lal's contention that there is a clash of values between the king and the parties is plain wrong. He should also get over his obsession with the Maoists. They are going to be around for much longer than he thinks.

Shiva Raj Sharma,
Pokhara

l CK Lal shows the fine writing in his State of the State column is now haywire and inconsistent. In one paragraph of 'Clash of values' (#190), he says "in totalitarian as well as authoritarian systems there is no place of dissent of any kind" and in the very next he says "authoritarian monarchists may show a higher degree of tolerance". His cynical columns have been running in Nepali Times for years without any restrictive reaction. Yet, it was during the reign of the elected governments that Lal wants restored that an editor was jailed for publishing an article by the Maoist leader in a leading daily newspaper. How does Lal explain that? At least yours is allowed to publish columnists like Lal.

Dipak Ratna,
Kathmandu