MIC to probe MyKad brawl

The party's diciplinary chief condemns the violent confrontation, and takes the MIC Youth members involved to task.

KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC disciplinary committee will probe the fracas which took place outside the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

In a statement today, committee head KS Nijhar condemned the incident and described it as nothing short of disgraceful.

He also took the MIC Youth members involved to task for resorting to violence and expressed sympathy for those injured in the punch-up.

Even if provoked, Nijhar said, “The (MIC) Youth should have acted with dignity and not retaliated with violence.”

Yesterday, the MIC Youth members, led by their chief T Mohan, and PKR members clashed outside the PMO in Putrajaya and both groups blamed each other of being the catalyst.

MIC Youth accused Puchong PKR division chief S Murali, who sustained injuries to his face, of hurling vulgarities and throwing the first punch, which was denied by the opposition party.

PKR claimed that the MIC Youth members had tried to attack17-year-old student B Reshina and PKR vice-president N Surendran. But MIC Youth rubbished this claim.

While PKR had gone to the PMO to submit a memorandum demanding that Reshina be issued a MyKad, the MIC delegation was there to thank the prime minister for issuing identification cards and birth certificates to Malaysian Indians under the MyDaftar programme.

Will PKR do the same?

Meanwhile, Nijhar stressed that there was no justification for violence based on verbal provocations.

“If it is true that the provocations were of a physical nature, the retaliation is still unjustified unless these physical provocations are of a dangerous nature.

“Instead police reports should have been made and MIC Youth would have then stood on a high moral ground,” he said.

The same rule, Nijhar added, applied to PKR members who were embroiled in the fracas as well.

“They have made their point on the issue of stateless Indians loud and clear. Now, was it necessary to resort to street politics and vulgarities to drive the same point again?” he asked.

On the same note, the veteran politician questioned if PKR would follow MIC’s lead and launch an internal probe into the incident.

‘It was a premeditated attack’

Contacted later, Surendran dismissed the need for PKR to conduct a probe on the incident and disagreed with Nijhar’s assertion that the opposition party members were embroiled in street politics and had hurled profanities.

“We (the PKR delegation) proceeded in a peaceful and orderly manner. I saw a large number of MIC ‘gangsters’ rush towards the small PKR group with the intention to cause harm.

“I also saw how the injured PKR members tried to block them from attacking Reshina and me, therefore there is no need for a probe as it was an unprovoked attack,” he said.

Surendran also stressed that the incident cannot be described as a fracas, riot or scuffle simply because it was a “premeditated” attack by the MIC Youth members.

In view of this, the PKR leader dismissed the MIC internal inquiry as meaningless.

“I want the inspector-general of police to take criminal action against the perpetrators,” he said.