KUALA LUMPUR: Puchong MIC division chief Awtar Singh's sacking from the party is unrelated to the party's presidential institution, which has been accused of being undemocratic and rejects criticism.
MIC secretary-general Datuk R. T Rajasekaran said Awtar's sacking was due to the latter being aggressive in attacking the unity government's leadership, including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"This matter has nothing to do with a claim that the party president (Tan Sri A. Vigneswaran) cannot be criticised. Actually, he (Awtar) has been called to give his explanation to the party on Wednesday," Rajasekaran told Berita Harian today.
He also revealed incidents involving Awtar's behaviour. He claimed that in the past, the Puchong MIC divisional leader criticised various quarters, including the Selangor Menteri Besar, ministers in the unity government and Barisan Nasional component party leaders.
"The MIC leadership often issued warnings and gave him many chances to air his views rationally," he said.
Among the incidents, he claimed, was that Awtar became brash with a Selangor MIC leader during a meeting involving the state Umno's top leadership in Putrajaya a few weeks ago. He said there also an incident with a party member during a branch meeting under the Puchong MIC.
Rajasekaran said Vigneswaran has repeatedly met with Awtar to give the latter an opportunity to convey his opinions directly to the MIC president.
"The MIC president's openness in this shows that Awtar has never been prevented from voicing his opinion in the party. The president always gives opportunities to all including Awtar to give opinions for the sake of party's benefit.
"During the MIC central working committee meetings, all members often give their opinions and the president accepts these opinions well. The action taken on Awtar was due to him overstepping the boundary of tolerance in the party," he said.
The action taken on Awtar was taken six hours after a video of him criticising Vigneswaran was spread on social media yesterday. It is understood that Awtar has been given 14 days to appeal against his sacking from the party.
In the video, Awtar, among other things, questioned Vigneswaran's statement which the former thought did not encourage party members to contest against MIC deputy president Datuk Seri M. Saravanan during the party election next month.
Meawnwhile, Free Malaysia Today quoted Awtar as saying that he would not be appealing against the action taken againts him by the MIC. He described such an appeal as being "wasting time" and that he could predict the outcome of such a thing.
Awtar, who has been in MIC for 40 years, insisted that his sacking was unfair and that he was not issued any show-cause letter prior to his sacking.
