Nepal, April 14 -- My previous column, published in this paper on March 30, was entitled "An apology is not enough." In the article, I thanked the Balendra Shah administration for deciding to offer a formal apology to Dalits on behalf of the state, while seriously doubting its sincerity to contain the hitherto widespread problem of caste discrimination.

Sadly, any discussion on the proposed state apology has become futile now, as it has been silently ditched. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) government has shamelessly reneged on its promise-and prevaricated it through Rabi Lamichhane's emotional speech.

This exposes a height of dishonesty and hypocrisy on the part of a government popularly expected to deliver corruption control and go...