MIC deputy president M. Saravanan has described the claim by some quarters that the general election will be held on Deepavali day on October 24, as “political drama” by the opposition.

He said the claim is intended to play on the sentiments of the Indian community, adding that there would be sufficient time to celebrate the festival since the Election Commission (EC) meeting on managing the election would only be held on October 20.

“If the EC meets on October 20, we will most likely have two weeks or a week for the nominations. After that, there will be another two weeks for the election,” he said. 

“Perhaps GE15 will be held one to three weeks after Deepavali, so there is no need to raise this issue. At least we will have two to three weeks of buffer period,” he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, referring to the upcoming polls.

Last week, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook reportedly said the dissolution of parliament this month to pave way for the general election was an act that disrespected the Indian community celebrating Deepavali.

Saravanan said he had requested Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to consider giving replacement leave to teachers from the Indian community in Tamil schools for the Deepavali celebration.

“I have appealed to the prime minister to take into account the appeal from teachers of the Indian community who requested to be given either an occasional public holiday or additional replacement leave,” he said.

On the issue of foreign workers raised by the opposition, Saravanan, who is also the human resources minister, said the matter has been resolved and there is no need to make it a political issue.

“Through various programmes, there are about 1.1 million foreign workers in our country now. In the three months since we signed the agreement with Bangladesh and Indonesia, 159,000 had entered the country between July and September,” he said. – Bernama, October 12, 2022.