Ujjwal Jha

Kathmandu, June 22:

Time was when DR Karthikeyan, former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was busy as a bee heading tough investigations like the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and barking orders. Now with plenty of time on hand, he tours famous tourism and holy shrines in Europe, America, Middle East, and South Asia promoting religious tourism.

Yesterday’s super cop has metamorphosed into a man of religion. He wears the religious cap with the same panache and fervour as he did his khakhi cap, and goes about promoting the cause of peace with missionary zeal.

Having arrived in Kathmandu from Tibet, Kathikeyan met this scribe at hotel Hyatt Regency.

He said he was delighted when people easily accepted his message of religious and communal goodwill in several sacred shrines in the Middle East, which were once tense.

Conflict-hit Nepal should first focus on saving the nation as conflict only begets trouble, he said.

He said he was pained to hear the current conflict has taken a toll of around 15,000 lives. “The conflict and the violence must end; there is no alternative to peace,” he said.

Extreme positions, whether political or religious, would not do any good to anybody and as such governments and people of conflict-hit nations should do solve disagreements between themselves and work to restore brotherhood, love and peace, he said.

“Conflicts must be resolved finding out their root cause. If that is not possible, then security forces must be reinforced and along with that development work must be carried out all along so that the people would get an assurance and a feeling that the State is working for them,” he said. He suggested that the security forces in Nepal be given more and better arms.