By IANS
New Delhi : In a clear message that India can’t go beyond a point to push the cause of Malaysia’s Indian community, the government cold-shouldered Malaysian Tamil leader P. Waytha Moorthy during his visit here this week.
A disappointed Moorthy had to leave India without meeting any minister or official. “There was no meeting with anybody from the external affairs ministry or anybody from the government,” an official source said.
Moorthy, the leader of Hindu Rights Action Group (HINDRAF), a non-governmental organisation, was in India for a day before he headed to Geneva and Washington to drum up support of the international community against the alleged ill-treatment of Indian origin people of Malaysia.
Moorthy, a lawyer who has taken up the cause of Malaysia’s over two million ethnic Indians through HINDRAF, has demanded an affirmative action plan for the Indian community in Malaysia and wants New Delhi to use its clout to pressure the Malaysian government for a better deal for ethnic Indians.
Moorthy could only meet senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani who promised to lobby the Indian government to take up the issue of alleged discrimination against ethnic Indians, largely Tamils, in Malaysia.
One of the reasons for the government playing safe is that it does not want to risk its growing relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the East Asia Summit in which Malaysia is an influential player, a diplomatic source said.
The Indian government has become more cautious after accusations by Malaysian authorities linking some ethnic Indians in Malaysia to Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE), a terrorist organisation that is banned in India and other countries.
The LTTE thrives on the support of a section of Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora settled in Western countries.
“A terrorist is a terrorist. He has no religion and his origin does not matter,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here Friday when asked by journalists whether the Indian government was planning to take up the issue of the alleged link of Indian Tamils in Malaysia with the Malaysian authorities.
Mukherjee’s reply underlined an extremely circumspect attitude of the Indian government towards the plight of ethnic Indians in Malaysia. Some 10,000 odd ethnic Indians organised massive protests nearly a fortnight back alleging discrimination. The protesters were baton-charged and tear-gassed by the Malaysian police.
Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responded in general terms, saying “whenever Indian citizens abroad or people of Indian origin are adversely affected, it’s a cause of concern.”
Mukherjee also did a subtle balancing act in his statement in parliament last week.
“We have friendly relations with Malaysia and we are in touch with the Malaysian authorities in the related matter,” he said while stressing that the government remained “deeply solicitous” for the welfare of people of Indian origin living abroad.
In the same breath, the minister stressed that the people of Indian origin in Malaysia are citizens of that country.
Subsequently, the external affairs ministry took up the issue with the acting high commissioner of Malaysia to India Monday.
People of Indian origin, mostly Tamils, comprise eight percent of Malaysia’s population of 27 million. They allege that an affirmative action policy favouring Malays in government jobs has led to their marginalisation and made them more vulnerable to exploitation.