An Indian politician has claimed that he was detained at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on June 9 last year for 16 hours without any reason, despite having a valid travel visa, before being deported back to Chennai.
V Gopalasamy, popularly known as Vaiko, had put on Malaysia's banned list when he had visited Malaysia in 2015.
But all has changed since Pakatan Harapan took over Putrajaya on May 9.
At the Seberang Jaya wedding ceremony of Dr R Vijaya, the son of Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, Vaiko recounted his ordeal.
Vaiko said he was kept locked in a storage area but refused to take water or food from the officers at work.
"This is an act of defiance to show that Tamils are tolerant and tolerated pressure well, especially when our rights are trampled on.
"However, this is now New Malaysia, and I am able to enter freely to meet my best friend and towering international Tamil icon, Ramasamy," he said in his speech at the wedding.
According to Vaiko, the last time he had been barred from entering Malaysia, it was to attend Ramasamy's daughter's wedding.
On that occasion, Ramasamy tried to get top officials to help him.
"However, the officers at the airport were insistent on sending me back to India. They told me it was orders from the top," he added.
It was highly speculated at the time that the Sri Lankan embassy had intervened in Vaiko's detention in KLIA, due to his links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Vaiko added in his speech that Ramasamy had in turn also been denied entry to visit his ancestral home in Tamil Nadu.
The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) secretary-general had contacted Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the time to help out in the matter.
"I told him, Ramasamy is a son of our soil, and you have to issue the visa. Modi then helped him enter India,” he said. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.