Kathmandu, Jan. 3: Speakers at an interaction programme here today felt that mutual understanding and the sense of respect to each other were the driving forces that could settle all misunderstandings and other problems the country has been facing in recent times.

The one-day interaction programme was organised by the main opposition CPN-UML to give “a new direction and the sense of security to the country marred by racial and communal feelings.”

The leaders from various political parties and people from different walks of life showed their solidarity in launching a nation-wide peace march on January 7. The peace march is meant “to show that all parties are serious against violence caused by communal feelings.”

“The peace march could be the best harbinger among ourselves to show that we are always sensitive regarding the national unity and to do away with all the discrepancies, and feelings detrimental to social harmony,” former prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai said at the function.