While communist parties around the globe are facing extinction and extermination from the national, regional and international political platform, Nepal has seen a resurgence of communist parties over the past few decades.

Recently, the two major communist parties of Nepal have secured the major share of the parliamentary seats after the general elections and have successfully formed a majority government. Furthermore, the two parties and their top leaders have worked together, brushing aside their political, philosophical ad ideological differences, and joined hands to establish one unified Communist Party of Nepal.

This is greatly appreciable as any political unification is a considerable challenge and all the leaders, their supporters and party workers deserve credit for making this happen. A divided ruling party or a multi-party coalition has always been a pain rather than any gain from experiences of all major South Asian countries.

The variously divided communist parties around the globe, particularly in South Asia with special emphasis to India, should look at Nepal and learn from this experience. United communist parties in different South Asian countries can play a more effective role as opposition due to their better chances of seat sharing in corresponding parliaments, senates and assemblies. Kudos to Nepal for showing the path!

Saikat Kumar Basu, Canada

Gun culture

The unfortunate Florida school shooting incident is ample proof of the gun culture prevailing in America besides proving that many adolescents, especially students, are having the behavioural problem akin to radicalised mind.

Going through the sad story in the newspapers has started unfolding many facts about the American lifestyle. In general, the youths in the US have great ambitions, working hard to achieve in their fields/areas.  They are in fact taking education seriously.

Despite this fact, the mindset of many youths is a bit monstrous, maybe due to the effects of Hollywood movies, mostly willing to create/cause disturbance to others. This mess should be immediately fixed. Interestingly the American parents are doing the audacious tasks of helping their wards in education and career. With the help of the ruling regime and the parents, good values and ethics can be imparted to the American youth.

This will definitely make a difference to the present American culture. On the whole, the entire process of moulding the youths is a tedious task that can be executed through the motivation of the parents and the helping hand from the government.

Finally, the American students should be encouraged to take to social activities like visiting other countries. For example, Asian countries like India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Bangladesh are home to great cultures and have great historical backgrounds. Remember, the prehistoric navigators/explorers, like Christopher Columbus, hailed from the Western countries like Portugal.

P Senthil Saravana Durai, Mumbai