Finally, the Nepal Communist Party has come into existence following the unification of the CPN-UML and CNP-Maoist Centre a few days ago. It took them almost eight months to merge their parties giving a huge relief to their voters.

There were many speculations whether these parties having two different political principles would indeed merge to become a single party. Now, some political analysts simply claim that the purpose of their merger is nothing but a ploy to be in power for long after learning lessons from the past.

However, whatever the merger means, it seems to be, politically, a positive development when it comes to political stability needed for giving continuity to ongoing development programmes and brining economical and social changes in the country.

Following the tradition of presenting the policies and programmes prepared by the government in the past, President Bidhya Bhandari on Monday unveiled the left government’s first policies and programmes in Parliament “Policies, programmes aim to enhance infra” (THT, May 22, Page 1).

Based on this framework, the government will table a budget for the fiscal year 2018-19. Restrictive import policy on products such as alcohol and tobacco, self-reliance in sugar, pharmaceutical products, cement and leather footwear, formulation and implementation of full-fledged periodic plans and enhancing the capacity of provincial governments are some of the major highlights of the policies and programmes.

The main opposition Nepali Congress has termed the government’s outline a document “without priorities”. However, the private sector has welcomed it saying it is “business-friendly” as it has vowed to ensure the rule of law by adopting zero tolerance against corruption, boost job creation and double per capita income “Pvt sector applauds govt’s policies and programmes” (THT, May 22, Page 9).

However, it has been seen in the past that none of the governments were able to achieve their targets as outlined in their annual policies and programme due to poor implementing and monitoring system. Time will tell how successfully this most powerful leftist government performs.

Rai Biren Bangdel, Maharajgunj

Suicide

This is with reference to the article “Suicide and the media: A degree of caution is required” (THT, May 22, Page 8). I have gone through the article. I fully agree with what has been said in this informative piece. There is an obvious reason for the increasing suicide rate.

One of the interesting analyses Dr Robertson has made is that the media should be more skeptical and cautious on how to report the news of suicide which also affects the family concerned and society as a whole. It is glaringly clear that in Nepal there is a lack of understanding when it comes to reporting events like suicide, which has emerged as a major public health concern.

Shiva Neupane, Melbourne