The American Diversity Visa Victims’ Association has from yesterday started a fresh round of protest programmes against the US Diversity Visa System. The Association, which reportedly boasts of over 1,000 members, has been on a warpath

against the American Embassy since Oct. 2006. It claims that the embassy has rejected visa applications baselessly even while making the applicants spend “a huge amount of money”. Before the latest round of strikes, the Association had held a two-month sit-in outside the embassy premises, a 24-hour relay hunger strike for 105 days and fast-unto-death from April 9-16, the last of which was called off after the American Embassy assured a thorough review of their applications on April 16.

DV victims have been demanding, among other things, closure of DV, compensation from the American Embassy and end to US interference in Nepal. The embassy, on the other hand, insists that visa applications have been vetted with utmost rigour and some of them have been rejected on fair grounds. Common ground should be found and the deserving candidates should be given the opportunity to live their American dreams. But, things seem to be getting from bad to worse. Unless both the sides show genuine will to sit face to face and listen to each other, the crisis will only deepen. We can only hope that both the sides exercise common sense and are ready to compromise if reason demands so.