MORE Pics & Details at powerpresent.blogspot.com M’sian Indians boycott Thaipusam festival -KL MALAYSIAN Indians stayed away in droves from a popular Hindu festival on Wednesday, in a boycott linked to allegations of discrimination by the nation’s majority Muslim Malays. The colourful Thaipusam festival, during which devotees pierce their bodies with hooks and skewers, usually attracts more than a million people to Kuala Lumpur’s Batu Caves temple, set in a spectacular limestone cavern. But this year activists called on Hindus to celebrate elsewhere, accusing temple managers of assisting police who cracked down hard on a demonstration there last November, using tear gas and water cannons. The crowds were thin on Wednesday, numbering only in their tens of thousands, thanks to the boycott call and the prospect of more trouble. SMS spread A series of SMS text messages had called on ethnic Indians who did turn up to use their sandals to pelt political leaders including Samy Vellu, the leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress which is a member of the ruling coalition. The veteran politician, who has sided with the government and been accused of neglecting the interests of his constituents, insisted there were at least half a million people at the complex and a million the day before. ‘I have come to Thaipusam since I was 11 years old. I know the crowd. It is the same as before,’ he told reporters at Batu Caves. ‘I don’t think religious people who went to pray to Lord Murugan …
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