CORONAVIRUS | MIC leaders have lambasted claims by DAP's Bagan Dalam assemblyperson Satees Muniandy that the party prioritised its "own members and the politically connected" while repatriating Malaysians stranded in India due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
MIC Central Working Committee member P Kamalanathan (above) told Malaysiakini that there is no justification whatsoever for such claims.
"I have been following this from day one. MIC did not have a list of those (stranded) there and we were relying on those who registered with the Malaysian missions in India.
"When we started it was 700-800 people, but even as we brought back some, more and more were registering. MIC is sponsoring the flights but we have no say on who gets to travel on the aircraft," he said.
MIC National Information Chief V Gunalan said that thus far 1,113 Malaysians have been brought back from India through six flights.
"There is no selection, we take the students who have registered at the High Commission or the embassy."
"In today's flight we even brought back 225 Malaysians who were studying in Dhaka," said Gunalan.
He confirmed that the party had paid RM1.05 million to charter the flights and that the money was raised by the party and through private sponsors.
Satees had also questioned why the repatriation in India had seen a prominent role by the Indian government, and not the Malaysian Foreign Ministry.
"Now is not the time for politics," said Kamalanathan. "Our priority is to bring Malaysians back home. Our party president (SA Vigneswaran) has been working very hard to do so. We work with the Foreign Ministry, overseas missions, airlines and others."
Kamalanathan said that the party will stand by its commitment and meet the challenges of the situation.
"There was one day when a flight was supposed to go and pick up passengers in Trichy, but we didn't have landing rights. So we arranged two flights the next day," he said. - Mkini
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