CK Lal in 'Poll pot' (#188) is his usual cynical self without considering the people and the country. Whereas Yubaraj Ghimire in 'Scandalous silence' in his Capital Letter column in the same issue has given us a broader perspective of the people and the nation. We readers would like to thank the Nepali Times for publishing the two articles in the same issue. At least it is now balanced and we don't have to read only CK Lal's well written, yet motivated, articles.

Dipak Ratna,
Thamel

. CK Lal's 'Showing we have guts' (#187) has to do not only with moral courage but mostly action. Your columnist advocates the quintessential argument forwarded by Aristotle in his Politics, the 'Good Men' who follow and the 'Thinking Men' who lead. The fundamental underlying principle to a polity is ethics and for a functioning democracy is respect for the rule of law, which is lacking in our civil society. Aristotle also wrote how important ethics was to individuals and their civil society. Both our intellectuals and leaders lack the most basic tool, which is educational goals and moral character to lead and have a vision for the country. Education in our country is a means to the end game of politics where all the student organiszations are affiliated to one or the other political parties. The goal of education is to create thinking people and manpower for the nation so that they can lead, think and/or perform for the nation. Education is not a means to climb up the political ladder.

Moral character has its roots in religion and culture. Most of our leaders are god-fearing Hindus (in spite of some of them being communists), so the only method to get the message across to them is now in a language they will understand, ie, they will be responsible for their karma of this life. They all will go to narka for creating all the dukha for the people. If these erstwhile leaders are thinking of a legacy to leave behind, or how posterity and history will judge them, or even if they have an ounce of pride (marda ko choras/choris), or if they do not want to rot in hell, they will all unite and fight the Greater Battle of Regression against the Maoists to create stability in the country and tackle poverty to alleviate the suffering of the people.

Challenging their manhood may be the only way to get them to act. If not, they will have only further justified their status of namarda.

SN Singh,
email