Kuala Lumpur: Pakistan’s effort to play the ‘religion card’ against India in Malaysia was met with a mighty snub from Kuala Lumpur. Pakistan had urged Malaysia to cancel scheduled events of India’s all-party delegation led by JDU MP Sanjay Jha.
Seven such delegations had set out for different countries around the world to highlight India’s stand on cross-border terrorism that Pakistan engages in and the need to launch Operation Sindoor.
“We are an Islamic country, you are an Islamic country… don’t listen to the Indian delegation, cancel all their programmes in Malaysia,” the Pakistani embassy in Kuala Lumpur is said to have urged the government of that country.
Malaysia rejected Islamabad’s outrageous request, and approved all the 10 programmes organised by the delegation.
“The nine-member all-party delegation just concluded its visit to Malaysia …. It has been hectic yet very productive …. I would like to highlight the significant interaction our delegation had with the Indian community here …. We had a very good meeting …. It has been extremely productive from the perspective of conveying the key message of new India, which is a new normal, it is about India’s policy of zero-tolerance against terrorism,” India’s High Commissioner to Malaysia B N Reddy has said.
India has both cultural and economic ties with Malaysia. While nearly 9% of the Malaysian population is of Indian origin, India is also the largest importer of edible oil from that country.
Malaysia had burnt its fingers once in the past by saying that New Delhi had ‘invaded and occupied’ Kashmir. The country’s prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was forced to take back his words after Indian traders boycotted Malaysian palm oil in 2020. Mohamad later said his nation is too small to respond to India’s boycott with trade retaliation.
On Wednesday, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board issued a statement highlighting how India has cut basic import duty on crude edible oils from 20% to 10% (effective May 31). This promises to promote crude edible oil exports from the country to India.
Under the circumstances, Malaysia is unlikely to be influenced by Pakistan, particularly on grounds of religion. The Indian delegation met representatives of Malaysia’s Democratic Action Party headed by deputy prime minister Y B Tuan M Kulasegaran V Murugeson. It also met representatives of People’s Justice Party (PKR) led by Y B Sim Tze Tzin.
