Municipal elections

Your editorial “Poles apart” published on July 27 stresses the need for participation of the political parties in municipal elections to make it “legitimate” at home and abroad. As far as I know, democracy is about making choices; all the citizens and institutions have freedom to make a choice based on their own judgments. And by announcing to boycott the elections on

various grounds, the seven agitating political parties exercised their democratic right. In addition, the seven agitating parties are not the only political forces in Nepal. All parties,

recognised by the Election Commission are political forces. What would these seven parties say if other registered parties participate in the elections and the people voted for them?

Would it be termed a farce then, just because they did not participate? Does mending fences with the political parties mean they should be allowed to disrupt normal life by agitating at Ratna Park or Bhadra Kali and paralyse the traffic, call strikes so that children cannot go to schools, burn government-owned vehicles and derail fences in Tudikhel? Does it mean that the leaders of the political parties and their followers should be treated like neo-gods and above the law of the land?

Sadaya Hamal, Biratnagar

Vain attitude

The outburst of those gentlemen who found the practice of Gurkha recruitment unacceptable to the indigenous communities reflects their vain attitude and is not the least based on ground

facts. Why just British Gurkhas, why not Indian Gurkhas? It is a common knowledge that salary and perks are much higher with the former, hence the rush for the British Army. Also the British government has given Gurkha men who retired after 1997 the option to stay back. Everyone hopes and tries to seek greener pastures and not just the indigenous people. And the British Gurkhas has some men who are qualified to take up any challenging job back home but there are no openings in the country to absorb them which is one of the reasons why they get enlisted in the British Army. On the other hand, I am sure if the British Army opens its gate for everyone, people of all ethnic backgrounds will queue up at the British recruiting centres. It is impractical to blame anyone or any political system for our failures. As long as unemployment persists, no country or no form of government will find any reason to support such impractical assumptions.

B P Sharma, via e-mail

Child rights

This is in reference to the news “Abuse of child workers on rise,” published in THT on August 2. It is a sad revelation that as many as 203 children were exploited by their employers in the past six months. In fact, Amnesty International, in its report published last week, had just revealed that Nepal’s record on child rights is as pathetic as it could ever have been. Hoteliers,

alongside rude landlords, seem to be ignoring children’s rights. The numerous NGOs which are working in the name of child welfare must investigate cases of abuse and bring to book those found guilty of committing such unwarranted atrocities. It is also the responsibility of the State to ensure that its children are safe in the country. The National Human Rights Commission must initiate some kind of action in this respect.

Binayak Sharma, via e-mail