Royally wrong

It is the Maoists' responsibility, as a major political party, to create peace. Instead, they are lying to the people and pointing out a 'royalist hand' everywhere they themselves are responsible, whether the beating up of the businessman in Kathmandu or the incident in Gaur. In fact no matter who starts the violence, the Maoists, the JTMM, or any other organisation, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his ilk blame the royalists.

Navin Nepal,
email

What a sad situation. On the one hand, the Maoists are preparing to join parliament. On the other, their cadres are still involved in forceful extortion and violence. Those who do things like beating up hoteliers need to be held to Nepali law, not that of the comrades. And Pushpa Kamal needs to stop smelling palace involvement everywhere. If he's so sure of it, why not show us the evidence?

Kunda Dixit was right when he said in London this week that the political parties have failed to live up to the promises of the April Uprising. The fight for positions continues and the Maoists are as bad as the others. It is a telling shame that the parties did not pass the bill prohibiting themselves from engaging in destructive activities. It is the time to work together to address the root causes of our problems. We simply cannot afford to lose more time.

P Saria,
Ljubljana

Your 'long time royal watcher' does not get it either ('A stitch in time', #340). All the seven party politicians, including Girija Koirala, and the Maoists are using the royal bogeyman to deflect their own lack of governance in the country. Koirala, by his own admission, has no clue who to talk to and what to do about the tarai situation (other than blaming the palace).

The king may be unpopular among party activists, but the same cannot be said for the general public. How else would you explain the 20,000- 30,000 people-according to media estimates-who lined up for Dasain tika from the king a few months ago? And they are just the bold ones.

The seven-party alliance and the Maoists think the silent majority of Nepalis support them. But in a country where lawlessness rules the supreme, only those with the guns have the voice, the rest of us have no choice but to keep quiet. And your royal watcher seems to suggest that he/she has heard it all!

SK Aryal,
email

Will somebody tell Hisila Yami, it is her party, and not education that is driving people out of Nepal ("We will link education with labour", #340). As for nationalising universities, we Nepalis would be happy if the government first focused on things like governing and policymaking. Education is one sector which has done well in the hands of the private sector.

People would rather pay a slight premium for quality education than giving a forced donation to Maoists for nothing. Moreover, the fact that our private schools turn out students who can compete in the international arena has stopped a lot of students from going to India even earlier. I think we should do the opposite of what Yami says and in fact turn public schools over to private management to improve their performance.

Rahul,
email

'Not by promises alone' (#340) was an eye opener, especially for highlighting the fact that people are advocating the nationalisation of education. With this sorry state of governance? As for the talk of disparity, is it advisable to bring
down the quality of education in private schools to be at par with the ill-run government ones? The thing to do now is control the fee structure of private schools and introduce scholarships for a certain number of poor children, based on the number of students studying in the private schools and the fee structure of the schools.

Name withheld,
email

I agree with 'Not by promises alone'. What really can create any difference are the efforts of creative and skilled individuals. The government should rather concentrate on empowering teachers and educators than making any new policies. Random new policies and syllabi confuse and de-motivate teachers and educators. Teachers are the real implementers of all these policies and need to be consulted in their drafting.

Pratibha,
email