Kuala Lumpur, February 16 – MIC Deputy President Dato Seri Dr S.Subramaniam’s speech yesterday announcing his decision to contest for the Presidency of the party was full of direct references to embattled party President Dato Seri G.Palanivel.
In his speech, Subra issued a stern warning to Palanivel not to fan caste politics in MIC to win votes and was forthright in telling his opponent he would not tolerate any form of Caste politics in MIC.
“I will give an assurance here to all of you present today that during my tenure every member in the party would be respected and would receive his dues based on his work, education and performance and no one would be elevated or patronised based on his caste” said Subra in a stern voice receiving a standing ovation for his remarks.
He said Palanivel uses some leaders for his own benefit for a while and then throws them out once they are irrelevant to his style of politics, nodding a comment from the floor that “the President has so far changed 5 Secretary Generals over a period of 4 years”.
“Brother Kumar Amman was appointed as a Secretary General for only 38 days and was asked to “carry out certain activities”. Then he was removed and now Sothinathan has been appointed as the new Secretary General” Subra said.
It is at this juncture he warned Palanivel not to fan caste politics in MIC.
Decisions taken in Palanivel’s “house”
Subra also said he heard several party decisions were taken at “Palanivel’s house” and this is one of the reasons that prompted him to take a stand against the President.
Party observers said Subra’s speech yesterday was very convincing as to why he had to go for the Presidency as it outlined the various reasons which pushed him to make the historical decision of taking on Palanivel.
“First and foremost is the manner the MIC election was conducted in 2013” he said further elaborating in detail the differences and anomalies in vote counting.
“When some complained about the 2013 election results I advised Palanivel to call the complainants and settle it within the party in a family spirit but the complainants were told that if they are not happy with the CWC decision (rejecting their complaint) then they can go to RoS. It is the leadership which forced the complainants to go to RoS” pointed out Subra.
