Worrisome trend

The public is currently suffering from the fragmentation of political forces into three — the monarchists, political parties and Maoists. The aim of all of them seems to be people’s welfare through the restoration of peace but none has done much to put their promise into practice.

“Wait for two more years”, say the monarchists.

“Restore the dissolved House,” say some leaders of the parties. “Hold a National Political Conference for the Constituent Assembly,” say the Maoists.

Each seems to be right from their point of view but the problem persists and the victims are simply the public. The public is suffering from the deteriorating economic condition, killings, illiteracy, poverty and poor health. It would not be wrong to say that people have lost faith in the government. People thought of better days after the end of the Rana regime but their dream remained unfulfilled. Then came the people’s movement of 1990, but political leaders acted in ways that did not come up to the popular expectations. Now there seems to be no chance of dialogue between them anytime soon. But it is time they put the people’s

interests above their own narrow interests for peace and democracy.

Bijaya Poudyal,

Kupondole, Lalitpur

Daydreaming

Some of the new projects reported by the national dailies during the past three or four years include: the Buddha’s biggest statue to be installed in Lumbini, the high speed Birgunj-Kathmandu-Tatopani electric train, 120-ft statue of Prithvi Narayan Shah beside the Bagmati bridge, 5000 MW dam project to be constructed on the Koshi river. However, I wonder if any of these projects has actually started. And now there is another addition — the highest tower in the SAARC region to be built at Jawlakhel.

The highest tower of our country is probably the Kantipur tower at Tinkune or the new colony building of Birgunj, but both would be much smaller than the latest plan of a 30-35 storey tower. Well, a skyscraper of that kind will certainly not come cheaper than $30 million, a price way above the clean reach of NTC, NDWC, NEA, or CAAN. Nevertheless, I must appreciate our great policy makers. It’s never too hard to imagine. Then there is the dream of making Nepal’s per capita income in excess of $10,000 .

Bharat Shah, Birgunj,

via e-mail

Praiseworthy

The news related to the penniless boy becoming Bangladesh’s first music idol was very touching (THT, Dec. 23). A slum-dweller grows up singing on local trains to raise money for his sick mother. I was moved when Nolok Babu, the music idol of Bangladesh, after wining the title, said, “It’s the end of my mother’s sorrow”.

This hit American reality television show has become very popular and been copied in a number of countries, including Bangladesh. Even Nepal recently orgaised a Nepali version of the singing competition on television.

Babu has proved that one could attain stardom from nothing, if one aspires to do so and is talented.

Pradip Bhandari, via e-mail

More pages

I am a regular reader of THT. Of late it is giving more space to advertisements than to news. More pages should be added to keep THT’s charm intact.

Pratik Dhakal, via e-mail