It took so many months for the deputy prime minister (DPM) to revoke Interlok, the book which has caused anger among Indian Malaysians and Chinese Malaysians. The DPM made many flip-flops to keep the book as a school text. The anger made Hindraf protest against this book, and many Hindraf members were charged in court. Till today the DPM has not bothered to stop the case even after the book Interlok was revoked from being a school text book.

Muhyiddin Yassin was more or less following the Malay supremacy behaviour. How can he, without dignity, attend the Thaipusam festival and be a very important person (VIP) for the festival. The one who did not respect Indian sentiment then made an address during the Thaipusam festival.

I urge the committee members of Maha Mariamman and MIC to invite more Hindu saints and priests to be VIPs during Thaipusam, rather than politicians. Thaipusam is not a political event. MIC have been using Maha Mariamman Devastanam for their political agenda from the day S Samy Vellu held the presidential post.

Thaipusam is a holy festival. Indians would rather love to hear transcendental lectures than political talks. The whole system need to be revamped, where saints and priests need to be garlanded, not the politicians who are failing to keep their promises.

Basically, all Hindu festivals are holy festivals. In fact before Thaipusam the devotees fasts or goes vegetarian for several days. That is how they respect the holy festival. I totally disagree with honouring a beef-eater during a holy festival which is totally disrespectful of Hinduism. For Hindus killing a cow is like a killing a mother. So letting someone who eats beef to address the crowd is a total mark of disrespect.

In Malaysia the ‘Allah’ issue is becoming so hot. The Malay Muslims are not happy about Christians using the ‘Allah’ word in the Bible. If that is the case how could Indians be happy when the DPM gave a speech during Thaipusam. If at all this doesn’t make sense, I urge people of other religions people to let Hindu leaders give a speech at their mosques or churches. It is not fair for Hindus to be marginalised this way.

MIC, Umno and Maha Mariamman Devastanam, be fair to the Malaysian Hindus.

-Saravanan