I really regret to read your editorial "Article 127" (#107). Rather than giving an opinion, you seem to have already pronounced your verdict that we cannot have elections. Avoid doing that. What makes you think that elections cannot be held? Nobody is asking the Election Commission to stop flash floods or these recurrent landslides. In the same vein, nobody is saying that the prime minister should restore the life of all 5,000 Nepalis who were killed during the last six years, or eradicate poverty by a single stroke of his spade. It is just elections in the normal course of our democratic development. We are not doing elections for the first time. Additionally, the Maoists never said that they are going to disrupt elections. Even if there are challenges, we have enough power and patience to go ahead. Why are you overreacting? Your comment on Article 127 is really disheartening. I don't think that the prime minister should advise the king to take any move under Article 127 in the name of removing obstructions. That will just bring the constitutional monarch into controversy. Let us not push the nation to another catastrophe. There is precedence in the Supreme Court's 1993 ruling that the constitutional monarch cannot spell out rules and conditions by exercising his powers under Article 127 on the advice of the prime minister. There is no "dilemma" here at all.

Bipin Adhikari,
Bangkok

. I do agree with the sentiments expressed in your editorial "Article 127 that chances of any improvement in the current situation remain dim should the same politicians be elected back in. But frankly, do people have other options? Where is the new generation of politicians that our people can choose from instead? Where are the alternative parties that show potential to be different? If there are none, why aren't we creating them? I understand that the last twelve years of status quo and the prototype of politicians that we have seen so far (including the Panchayati era for that matter) have been instrumental in putting the entire population off politics. The intellectual elite of Nepal are striving towards total detachment from the mainstream politics, perhaps to prove their credibility and moral superiority. And this "disgust" with politics seems to extend even further among our younger generation. So, who will we give the reins to? We face a huge challenge to rid our country of the deep-rooted corruption and ineptness to govern, and I have no doubt this situation will continue for some time. But perhaps it is time for us, the new generation, who might be more capable of politicking differently, to ask ourselves some serious questions. Questions such as why aren't we there creating these alternatives for our people? Why aren't we giving them the power to make a difference? Where are our new leaders? Will they only be born once the present political dinosaurs become extinct? Will they only start to write the future of Nepal once the slate is clean? Alas, that might be just a bit too late for us.

Neeta Pokhrel,
Australia