GP-ji, Kay ho yesto . . . eka bee.hai.nai? First some comparisons: Gagan Thapa is a well- known student politician in Nepal. Compared to him, I am a little-known person, with an extremely narrow sphere of influence, if any at all, in Nepal. [In politics, name recognition counts a lot; and Gagan is light years ahead of me in this regard, and is likely to stay that way.] Gagan Thapa has been to jail a number of times for his political beliefs. I have been to Bhadragol jail once as a harmless guest to watch a Cultural Program put on by some children of inmates. :-) Gagan Thapa has dedicated his entire adult life to politics. My path, as of now, has NOT involved public service aka politics. Gagan Thapa has had first-hand experiences of competitive and even brutally-fought student elections and has had a front-row seat of the process of national elections in the past. I remain quite inexperienced of such real-world cut-and-thrust matters of politics. Gagan Thapa is already a rising star in his political party . . . and he was/is so popular that his own neta Girija had to undemocratically fire Gagan from his own elected student-leadership post of General Secretary. I am NOT a member of any political party. At this point, based on his own DIVERSE experiences, Gagan is more likely to make more correct political decisions than I would. And so, as an evidence-driven person, and after careful weighing of these pieces of evidence, I would, at this point, vote for Gagan Thapa over Ashu for the above VERIFIABLY TRUE reasons. ******** Now for some clarifications: a) It was Gagan who interviewed me for an hour for a radio show in 2001. We talked about Nepali politics and society. In an answer to his question, my stance then, as now, was: Democracy has its own in-built self-correcting mechanisms. I also said something along the line that "getting prices right" (on economic front) and "getting institutions right (on political front) were the two challenges that younger Nepalis should work toward. b) Gagan and I have since exchanged ideas at forums at Martin Chautari -- the best place in Nepal to have unfettered discussions about anything under the sun. c) I have been of critical of Gagan and his friends because, through their actions in 2002, they did not let me -- a mere part-time student -- to complete a semester-long Chinese Language course at Biswo Bhasa Campus. Because of the student politics, which was affiliated with what Gagan and others were doing at the time, the campus was closed for many days, and the studying was haphazard . . . and that really pissed me off. I wish they had conducted their politics WITHOUT disrupting normal college studies. That was my first brush with Nepali student politics, part of which I did not like. To this day, my dream of speaking fluent Mandarin remains unfulfilled :-( d) When I said "King's actions have not harmed me personally" on Sajha, I meant to say that that was how MOST middle-class Nepalis in Kathmandu tend to reason when justifying the King's Feb 1 move. I also said that instead of talking about abstract goals, political parties need to take such views into account, and then craft messages that concretely challenges such ""King's actions have not harmed me personally" views. Merely attacking the messenger (in this case, me) and unnecessarily painting such a person as "pro-royalist" may provide temporary kicks/entertainment to some people who see the world ONLY in black-and-white, but that's not going to achieve anything useful, real or permanent. Aru pachi, oohi ashu