Its a sad reflection of the society we live in when a section of the community don’t even know about the religious bodies of another community. Due to the focus on one particular race/religion, many of us grow up without exposure to other religion facts like festivals, ideals, worship, organisations etc.

Malaysian Hindu Sangam must have been shocked when the Home Minister said that residents from Section 23 had met with representatives from MHS and will be meeting them again. The MHS president was quoted:

S Mohan revealed today that “not even the residents or the home minister Hishammuddin Hussein have come and met them like they claimed yesterday”.

“And I have checked with all of my staff, whether any of them was contacted by the residents or the minister, but no one has. I don’t know why they have used our name,” he added.

However, he said, he is “very keen” to meet the residents and would welcome a discussion with them on the matter that has sparked major uproar especially among the Hindu community nationwide.

“I am willing to meet anybody to resolve the matter amicably… I don’t want any problem with anyone but other people must consider our sentiment. We still need a temple for worship,” Mohan said.

More of Mohan’s comment as appeared in Malaysian Insider:

However Hindu Sangam president RS Mohan Shahmugam today told The Malaysian Insider they have had no official invitation yet to meet the federal government about the issue.

Hindu Sangam also believes the proposed site in Section 23 is the best area to relocate the temple.

Mohan said the temple was not meant to cater only to the Hindus from Section 23 but also from Sections 19, 20, 21 and 22.

Together there are at least 3,000 Hindus in these areas, Mohan said, adding the issue of relocating the temple from its current site in Section 19, had been pending for the last two decades.

The current temple was once part of Sungai Garing Estate, but over the years the Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS) had developed the areas surrounding the site into a housing estate.

The temple now lies in the middle of a Muslim-majority area and there had been no concrete effort to relocate until recently.

“This is not a new problem and I don’t understand why the small group of residents needed to protest in such a manner,” Mohan said.

Mohan said that carrying the head of a cow which is scared to Hindus was insulting and called on the government to take action against the culprits.

He also denied claims made yesterday by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein that residents of Section 23 had met Hindu Sangam to resolve the relocation issue.

“I have checked and there was no such meeting.”

However Mohan said he would welcome a meeting with the minister.

Actually, it was Hindu Sevai Sangam (HSS) whom met the residents!

However the confusion over which Hindu-based group had met with the residents was clarified when VK Regu of the Malaysia Sevai Sangam told Malaysiakini that it was his group which had the meeting.

He said his movement had met the protesting residents on the day after the protest to hold a dialogue.

“We had a fruitful meeting and we explained to them how our feelings were hurt by their actions. We also told them why cows are considered sacred to us,” he said, adding that his movement plans to hold more meetings with the residents in the near future.He said that the meeting was done on their own initiate and that they had no connections with the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.”It was us whom Hishammuddin was talking about. I also spoke to the minister and he knows our stand on the matter. He said he will help solve the problem,” added Regu.

The poor residents not even sure who they met in the first place, making this look more and more comical and disastrous.

Bol Radha bol, sangam hoga ke nehi… That’s the famous song from the 1964 hit movie Sangam. Maybe they saw this movie and got confused 🙂