Pictures by Sairien Nafis dan Eizairi Shamsuddin
Complete story
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak joined the Deepavali festivities at the MyPPP open house in Little India, Brickfields here.
Najib was all smiles as he was greeted by the hosts and guests on his arrival before making his way to the main stage, accompanied by Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor with his wife Datin Seri Enny Beatrice Ferlat Kusumo Anggraini, his deputy Datuk Loga Bala Mohan and MyPPP president Tan Sri M. Kayveas.
At the open house Najib received the Queen's Baton Relay on stage for its stop here in Malaysia from Oct 16 to 21 before going to the next stop, Brunei.
This is the longest relay in Commonwealth Games history - 230,000 km route which began at Buckingham Palace on Commonwealth Day (March 13) - and covering 70 Commonwealth nations in 388 days.
The relay will end at Gold Coast for the Games’ Opening Ceremony next year.
Dressed in a cream-coloured kurta, he together with the other guests of honour were treated to their meals, banana leaf rice.
Seen enjoying the festivities, Najib even requested for the song "Anak Kampung" which was played by live using traditional Indian musical instruments.
Nearly 5,000 people attended the ceremony which began since morning, where they were treated to various Indian delicacies such as thosai, vadey and jalebi.
Kayveas said the Malaysians were lucky to be able to celebrate all types of religious festivities in peace and harmony without any negative elements.
"Malaysia practices concept of equality, no one is left out from the the nation's prorgress including the Indian community who are part of the identity of the country.
"However, it is very sad when there are certain quarters that is trying to create issues, claiming that the Indian community has been deliberately sidelined by the government and not given proper assistance.
"These acts to inject element of disunity among races is a real threat, the government is trying to counter this but we need the cooper and help from everyone, don't be influenced by this," he told the media.