MIC in turmoil: What message is Palanivel sending out?

By admin-s Last updated Jan 5, 2015

(The Ant Daily) – The gloves have come off. With the threat of deregistration hanging over the party, MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel has now gone after Datuk Seri S. Vell Paari, the son of his former boss, former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, the very man he used to serve as press secretary.

In a press statement issued on Jan 3, Palanivel appointed Ramalingam Krishnamoorthy as MIC’s new strategic director replacing Vell Paari, as well as Datuk Kumar Silambaram @ Datuk G. Kumaar Aamaan as the party’s new secretary-general to replace A. Prakash Rao.

When contacted, Vell Paari told Theantdaily this was just “another episode of comedy central.”

“It just goes to show that the man (Palanivel) has already lost it. The Registrar of Societies (RoS) has given him a deadline and instead of focusing on that, he is talking about restructuring the party.

“What restructuring is he doing? He does not even seem able to remember or keep promises he has made in the past, so how do we believe his promises about restructuring? If you are talking about someone who is talking logic, that is a different matter. Does he realise the party may be deregistered? What party will there be then to restructure?” he asked.

Vell Paari also pointed out that his position as strategic director was already declared null and void when the RoS served the letter on MIC on Dec 5 so Palanivel cannot remove him from a post he no longer holds.

“When RoS served the letter on MIC on Dec 5 calling for a re-election for the CWC members and the vice-presidents’ posts, it also declared the term for 2013 to 2016 as null and void. As the position of strategic director also reports to the CWC, my post also became null and void on Dec 5.

“Since the position was already declared null and void, I don’t know which Vell Paari he (Palanivel) sacked,” he said.

When asked if he had received any letter informing him of this, Vell Paari said he only got to know about the matter from the media.