Speaking at the MIC’s 74th annual general assembly, held at the Wyndham Acmar Hotel in Klang, he said the community must work together with all relevant parties to help resolve the issue of illegally constructed Hindu temples.
“We have to take care of the future of our temples. We cannot humiliate our gods by having the statues built to worship them being broken, and then expecting others to help when faced with this problem.
“Who is humiliating them (the deities)? We are because we are not following the SOPs (legal requirements). Instead, we are blaming others,” he said, adding that Indians should not blame others when they run into problems by building temples without proper approvals from the relevant authorities.
He told delegates that the issue needed to be resolved once and for all as the younger generation should not be left facing the problem in the future.
“Let’s not be fundamentalists, Malaysia is a beautiful country. We want it settled and all of us need to work towards resolving it,” he said.
Vigneswaran added that MIC will hold a symposium involving all Indian-based parties to look into ways at solving the perennial problem and also drawing up the procedures to be followed to obtain the necessary permission to construct new temples.
On the demolition of Hindu temples in PAS-led Kedah, he said the incident had affected the good relationship between PAS and MIC members.
“Because of this, the way forward (for both parties) is unclear.”
He suggested that before the Kedah government takes any drastic action, it should allow MIC to intervene and resolve the issue, so as not to jeopardise ties between the two parties.
Meanwhile, Vigneswaran said that the party was uneasy over the proposal to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 in a bid to strengthen shariah laws in the country.
“We are concerned with the proposed amendments to control the expansion of religions other than Islam,” he said, adding that the party wanted justification for imposing such legal restrictions on other faiths.
He also took a swipe at PAS for declaring its intention to gerrymander electoral constituencies in order to favour Malays and Muslims.
“This goes to show that PAS’ main political aim is to set up an Islamic state. This is against the objectives of our founding fathers to have a secular nation,” he said.
Last month, plantation industries and commodities minister Khairuddin Aman Razali, who is from PAS, said the Islamist party is aiming to win a two-thirds majority in the next general election with the help of its allies in order to redraw election boundaries in a way that will benefit Muslims.