Malaysia-neither humane nor secular; India?

The way the Malaysian authorities have dealt with the peacefully protesting Hindus numbering more than 10,000, deserves to be condemned in the strongest of terms. It is sad & unfortunate that having settled in Malaysia for generations and being Malaysian citizens by birth, Hindus are still regarded as immigrants & outsiders and are discriminated against, in all social & religious spheres. Jobs, scholarships and economic benefits have not been ensured for them; poverty struck Hindus have not been alleviated nor uplifted; hundreds of Hindu Temples have been systematically demolished and they are not allowed to perform religious rites even during funeral times. When thousands of Hindus gathered under the banner HINDRAF (Hindu Rights Action Force) and attempted to take out a protest rally to give a petition to the British High Commission, as the British were responsible for their immigration from India years ago, the Malaysian authorities unleashed violence against the protestors using tear gas and water cannons laced with chemicals. Hundreds of protestors have been arrested and cases have been filed against them.

The UPA government at the center, which took immediate action when the Danish cartoons were published, which immediately expressed its concern on the hanging of Saddam Hussein, and which lost its sleep over the plight of the families of Kabeel and Hameed in the wake of UK blasts, had just not bothered to move even an inch over the plight of millions of Hindus suffering in Malaysia. Even after four days of the attack on, and, arrest of, Hindus, the government has not bothered to express concern over the atrocities committed by the Malaysian authorities. All the political leaders of Tamil Nadu including the Chief Minister have brought the seriousness of the situation to the attention of the central government, but to no avail. The Mlaysian Minister Nazri Aziz had insulted the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for writing to our Prime Minister, by commenting that “Malaysia is not Tamil Nadu and Let Karunanidhi lay off from this issue and mind his own business in Tamil Nadu”. Even after this, the center had not opened its mouth!

When Hindu Munnani leader Sri.Ramagopalan along with Sangh activists conducted a protest demonstration over the demolition of hundreds of Temples in Malaysia, in front of the Malysian High Commission here in Chennai three weeks back, he and his supporters were arrested by the TN government. Neither the Chief Minister nor the other “Tamil” leaders opened their mouth then, as they presumed that the issue was concerned with only “Hindu Temples”. Now, when the HINDRAF protests in Malaysia caught the attention of the international community, they suddenly realized that they have a “vote-bank” issue similar to the Srilankan Tamil issue!

While Mr.Karunanidhi, due to obvious reasons, projected this as an issue of “Tamils” (which is not true) through ‘lip service’, the “Tamil” minorities are conspicuous by their silence both here in TN and in Malaysia as well. None of the minority organizations in Tamil Nadu, which hit the streets for Danish Cartoons, US’s Iraq invasion, Saddam Hanging, etc, have bothered to lend even moral support to their “Tamil Brothers” in Malaysia. It was shocking to see the Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee giving sermons that Malaysia is a friendly state and all that, while refusing the members to raise this important issue in parliament. It is also a shame that the “secular” mainstream media in our country and the NGO & Human Rights industries have not bothered to show any kind of concern on this issue till this diplomatic row arose, as the people affected are Hindus.

This is height of hypocrisy, dishonesty and pseudo-secularism!

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