Palanivel’s man launches hunger strike ‘till last breath’ to protest RoS decision

Datuk G. Kumar Aaman has begun a hunger strike to protest the Registrar of Societies' (RoS) decision on his appointment as MIC secretary-general, reminiscent of the party's politics decades ago when a coffin was brought in and chairs thrown during meetings.

Kumar Aaman (pic, right) is camped outside the RoS office in Putrajaya where he said today he would strike "until his last breath" after the registrar refused to recognise his appointment by MIC president Datuk G. Palanivel as party secretary-general earlier this month.

“I am doing this for the Indian community. I will die for the community,” Kumar Aaman told reporters in the latest drama in MIC's infighting since its party elections in 2013 came under RoS scrutiny.

Kumar Aaman’s action today was reminiscent of a similar move by then vice-president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan who in 1988 embarked on a "death fast" at the MIC headquarters' car park and, in a dramatic touch, brought along a coffin.

He embarked on the fast to prove his innocence and to get charges of inciting violence and unrest within the party dropped.

He stopped his fast after 28 hours, following an assurance by then deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam that he would be given a fair hearing.

However, the party’s disciplinary committee eventually sacked Pandithan from MIC in 1989.

MIC gatherings in the past have also earned a reputation for violent scuffles which sometimes culminated in chair-throwing and fist fights.

Though such scenes have yet to be played out in the current party crisis, there have been some tense exchanges between members over the last month.

Rival factions in the party are now battling to maintain their grip on the ethnic Indian party, which is a member of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Kumar Aaman said he would continue his fast until the home minister removed the RoS director-general Mohammad Razin Abdullah and several officers who were in charge of investigating the party elections.

The RoS has ordered the party to conduct fresh polls.

He announced his fast today, flanked by the party’s working committee member K.P. Samy, information chief L. Sivasubramaniam and his lawyer T. Rajasekaran.

The three men sat outside at a corner of the building so as not to be in the way of those going in and out of the RoS office.

He said he would continue with the hunger strike until Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi replied to a memorandum he had submitted earlier demanding that Mohammad Razin and the officers investigating the party be replaced.

This is not the first time Kumar Aaman’s actions have caused a stir.

Last week he he traded barbs with former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu over a decision barring unauthorised personnel from entering the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur without consent.

Samy said Kumar Aaman had shouted and verbally abused him.

“As a trustee of MIC and former president, I rang him up to ask him who gave him the authority to do this. For that, he shouted at me and hurled vulgar and abusive words at me, saying it was his right,” Samy Vellu said in his police report.

Kumar Aaman retaliated by lodging his own police report at the Dang Wangi police station, saying the former MIC chief had called him a “rascal” and threatened to "finish him off".

Kumar Aaman said he had told Samy Vellu that the security measures were to stop outsiders from entering the party headquarters which also houses the Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED) and Selangor MIC headquarters.

Fighting within MIC intensified after president G. Palanivel, in a move to consolidate his grip, replaced secretary-general Prakash Rao with loyalist Kumar Aaman, and dropped former loyalists Tan Sri K.S. Nijhar, Datuk R. Ramanan, as well as Datuk Sri S. Vell Paari, who is Samy Vellu's son.

It also brought about Kumar Aaman’s directive to ban unauthorised party members from entering the party headquarters, a move seen as directed at Palanivel’s critics who had held a series of media conferences at the party headquarters questioning his leadership.

MIC is in the throes of crisis after the RoS found irregularities in the party polls and ordered it to conduct fresh elections.

The RoS directive also sparked fears that failure to conduct fresh polls would result in the party's deregistration. – January 22, 2015.

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