Mendacious opinion

One may agree with Bihari Krishna Shrestha’s views expressed in the letter published in THT on March 30 that the Nepali Congress did not split for ideological reasons but due to fratricidal feud between G P Koirala and Deuba over power and pelf. However, I fail to see any reason in his argument that Sashanka Koirala shouldn’t emerge “as still

another king maker from the Koirala dynasty”. If, on Shrestha’s own admission, NC and NC-D’s corrupt elements should be purged so that the reunited party could re-incarnate itself as a political force committed to the people’s cause, a new face in the party like Sashanka Koirala, along with the old party hand Shailaja Acharya, who is a politician of moderate views, should be encouraged to control the party affairs.

The NC and the NC-D, despite the presence of some corrupt faces in them, are not in dearth of untainted and capable leaders. And the two parties should emerge as a united entity before they embarked upon the course of party purges.

Shrestha also objects to international interest in the unity” of the parties and he writes “the US should be rooting for the people of Nepal, and not for restoring the

corrupt politicians to power.” The writer needs to clarify as to how these countries he refers to should be rooting for Nepal, for saying this is also akin to the view about the same

matter put across before all by the anti-democratic forces of the philistines. All said, the

political parties, even though controlled by some corrupt top men, couldn’t be ignored. And if one means the party system at all to stay in the prevailing situations, he has to accept the parties with all their drawbacks and defects.

Yadav Khanal, Kathmandu

Favouritism

Students are compelled to think about building their career given the competition they are facing today. But majority of them, especially those in the science streams, seem to be disillusioned and losing patience because either they cannot cope with the hard syllabus, or after the 10+2 exam do not get to good colleges. However, another reason for their frustration is fierce fight for the scholarships provided by the government and other educational institutions for a limited number of seats. On the other hand, the bribing of officials for the seats is rampant in the colleges, especially in government colleges, which

often deprive admission to the hard working pupils. Such factors are sure to ruin the

education system. The government has to provide healthy educational environment for the students.

Anish Bhandari, Chabahil

Ill-mannered

Recently I travelled standing in an over-crowed bus from Dhulikhel to Kathmandu. In one of the stops, a lady carrying a baby got inside the bus. Uncultured lot that we Nepalis are, needless to say no one got up to offer her a seat. And the poor women could neither fight with the male passengers nor the conductor for a seat. The result was disheartening; she had to complete one and half hours journey standing and carrying her baby.

This shows how selfish and heartless people have become here. Instead of offering some help, no one even bothered about her. It would have been a humane act for someone to

offer a seat to the more needy. It would be better if the transport department made some arrangement for the elderly and women in the public transport.In fact, many countries have such facilities for the disabled, unwell and especially women and children. That is a good system to introduce in Nepal too.

Birendra Shrestha, via e-mail