Thousands will throng to the Batu Caves to celebrate Thaipusam on January 30th, but a group of 200 will instead be on a hunger strike at the temple there in support of the recognition of Tamil language and literature in the SPM examination.

Chairperson for the Movement for Sustaining SPM 12 Subjects, A Thiruvenggadam, said the strike would begin at 8.30am and last for seven hours. “We will be carrying milk pots to pay homage after that,” he said.

batu caves temple The strike itself has yet to be approved by the Batu Caves temple committee, who will be discussing the matter later this evening.

Thiruvenggadam is hoping that the committee will give them the green light, since "they are also obliged to safeguard the Tamil language."

He said if the committee decided not to approve the hunger strike being held within the temple itself, they would continue with the strike in its compound instead.

Thiruvenggadam added that police approval was not required, as the strike would be conducted within the temple’s premises.

Besides the hunger strike, the group intends to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who will be visiting Batu Caves on Jan 29th.

The memorandum will be handed over by Thiruvenggadam and Klang-based businessman,  P.Thiagarajan, to Najib.

The issue arose when Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced only 10 subjects would be recognised for scholarship purposes last year, upsetting many who felt the move sidelined vernacular language subjects.

Recently the government has revised the policy to allow for two additional subjects to be taken by students, especially those from vernacular schools. However, they are firm in not giving full recognition for these subjects, nor counting them when calculating SPM credits.

The announcement prompted Indian NGOs to galvanise opposition to the move,  fearing it would cause the decline in the number of students sitting for the Tamil language and literature subjects.