Not a nice, sweet move for Hindus

PETALING JAYA: The removal of the sugar subsidy could not have come at a worse time for Hindus celebrating Deepavali: now they will have to pay more to make their cakes and sweets.

The move to scrap the subsidy may be good on health grounds since 2.6 million Malaysians under the age of 30 are diabetic patients.

But the government should have been a little bit more considerate for those preparing to usher in the festival of lights on Nov 2.

Deepavali invariably involves making sweets such as gulab jamun (a milk-based dessert served in a sugar syrup), jilabi (sweet dessert made of deep fried dough) and palkova (milk sweet), which of course involves a lot of sugar.

Housewife D Ratnam told theantdaily that while the move to abolish the sugar subsidy might promote a healthy living, the timing was inconsiderate.

“Deepavali is just around the corner. The prime minister [Datuk Seri Najib Razak] should have taken into account the importance of the multi-racial composition of the country especially since we use a lot of sugar in making Deepavali sweets.

Palanivel’s men capture most divisions

SHAH ALAM: MIC president Datuk Seri G Palanivel can breathe easier now after his men have won most of the top posts in the nearly-concluded divisional elections.

In Selangor especially, almost all of Palanivel’s men have been elected to the chairman’s post.

The state, which has the largest number of delegates with almost 30 per cent of the 1,450 delegates nationwide, has become Palanivel’s fort in the coming party elections.

The race is now between Palanivel’s men and his deputy Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam who was to have challenged his boss for the presidency but had settled to defend his position following a no-contest deal, brokered by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Under the deal, Palanivel gets to keep his position, inherited from former party supremo Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu, until 2016 before passing the party reins to Subramaniam.

Palanivel has already won his president’s post uncontested.

Recent developments in the party suggest that there is an attempt to get rid of Subramaniam and his line-up of leaders for the party’s three vice-presidents and 23 central working committee members.

The reason is simple: Palanivel needs to have his team of people holding top positions in the party for his own political survival as he had hinted after winning the position unopposed on Sept 1 that he may stay beyond his term.