Speaking to FMT, Hindu Sangam president RS Mohan Shan said it had been involved in the dispute over the Sri Maha Mariamman temple for more than 20 years, engaging all parties involved in that period.
“Initially, we wanted the temple to remain where it was, but after the matter went to court and a consent judgment was reached, we agreed to the relocation.
“This is because in the consent judgment, the developer, One City Development Sdn Bhd, would provide a proper place for the temple to be relocated to, and fair compensation. The new temple site would also be gazetted as a place of worship. We feel this is fair.”
The relocation of the temple is part of a win-win 2014 court solution, involving One City, the Selangor state government and two claimants to the temple management, K Chellappa and M Nagaraju.
Both Chellappa and Nagaraju, who were involved in a separate suit over the control of the temple management, agreed to hand back the land to One City after the company agreed to donate RM1.5 million to build a new temple on one of two plots of land given by One City.
Chellappa has since been named as the rightful temple manager, but Nagaraju is refusing to abide by the consent judgment to relocate. After the temple gave up the rights to one of the two plots of land, One City also gave it another RM1 million in compensation.
Now, some NGOs and MIC want the government to intervene and stop the relocation. A protest outside Parliament is set to be held today, on the matter.
Mohan Shan said as far as Hindu Sangam was concerned, it did not care about personal agendas but supported the relocation because it believed it was the best thing to do.
He added that Hindu Sangam, which is a member of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, had also requested the developer to allow for the relocation of the temple to be done in accordance with Hindu rituals, to which it had agreed.
“In many cases of temple relocations, the developers or authorities would just smash the temples and simply discard the deities.
“This is the correct way to handle a temple relocation. It’s a good example as the relevant parties have settled the matter amicably.”
Mohan Shan added that only a “section” of devotees were against the relocation, but said it was their right to protest in front of Parliament.
“There is no harm in them protesting, but we believe it is better to resolve the matter peacefully. In this case, all efforts have been made to do that. As far as we are concerned, this is the way forward.”