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- Malaysia torments Hindu Diaspora
- Sandhya Jain
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A fourth generation descendant of Tamil indentured labour, P. Uthayakumar, HINDRAF legal adviser and secretary general, Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP), has returned from New Delhi’s Pravasi Bharatiya Divas jamboree to face trial for ‘sedition,’ a charge made by the ruling United Malay National Organisation regime.
Advocates Uthayakumar and M. Manoharan spent 514 days in Kamunting Jail under the draconian Internal Security Act, for leading the spectacular one lakh strong HINDRAF rally of 2008, which demanded equal citizenship rights for Malaysian Hindus and opposed the ethnic cleansing of Tamil Hindus in that Islamic country. If convicted, the duo could face a three year prison term, a real possibility given the nature of the Malaysian Judiciary and the studied indifference of the token creamy layer of establishment Hindus.
Hindraf has been banned since, though it poses no threat to Malaysian social or political stability.
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Sadly, the HINDRAF leaders who came here to present the Malaysian Indian Minority & Human Rights Violations Annual Report 2009 Malay-sia Truly Racist, received only a perfunctory hearing by Official New Delhi.
The HINDRAF & HRP leaders urged Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna to diplomatically espouse the cause of the Indian minority which the Malaysian government is subjecting to systemic racist, religious extremist, and supremist policies that keep 70 percent of Indians desperately poor and outside the national mainstream development. As Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak is coming to India with a trade mission on Jan. 19, a firm word from New Delhi could have a timely impact.
- Meanwhile, the BJP has a long way to go in its quest to rediscover traditional political values. Uthayakumar unhappily observed that New Delhi only cares for the rich Diaspora, from whom it solicits investments. Thus, it came as no surprise to learn that while the savvy Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi assured Hindraf he was “aware” of the plight of poor and working class Malaysian Indians and would champion their cause in India and with Kuala Lumpur, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, expressed astonishment at their plight, though Hindraf had come to India with a human rights violations report in 2008 as well.
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