The mammoth rally which saw about 30,000 Indians taking to the streets has not tarnished the government's view of the community, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz.

"Some 20,000 penyangak (crooks) who participated in the rally would not jeopardise our viewpoint of the entire community," he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

"There were hundreds of thousands of Indians who did not participate in the rally. They stayed back and showed that they still support the government," he added.

He also questioned the rationale of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which aimed to submit a petition to the British High Commission.

Hindraf, which organised the rally, wanted to submit a petition to Queen Elizabeth II asking Her Majesty to appoint a Queen's Counsel to represent the organisation in its class-action suit against the British government.

Baseless accusations

"If they want to submit a petition or a memorandum, they should just send it to the Prime Minister's Department. There's no need for a street rally," said Nazri.

"All the allegations put forward by them (Hindraf) that Indians are marginalised are lies and nothing more than accusations," he said, adding that the government would trace those who are responsible for the gathering and charge them in court.

However, he denied the possibility of using the Internal Security Act (ISA) against the perpetrators.

"We will not use the ISA. If we do, they will fire back at us saying that we're using the law unnecessarily. But we will use other laws, and among the penalties could be prison sentence," he said.