By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : The troubled Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), riven by dissensions, has a new problem: a kick on the jaw delivered by a partyman has landed one of its provincial leaders in hospital.
S. Thenarasoo, 50, was conducting a meeting of the Kluang division’s meeting of the MIC in Johor state when he was first attacked with a water bottle and then roughed up by a colleague.
The attackers were not named by The Star newspaper that said that it was “a personal matter” raised at the party’s internal meeting that sparked the row.
He ducked the water bottle, but found that the other attacker suddenly jumped on the table in front of him and kicked him in the jaw.
Thenerasoo, who is a municipal councillor, said he immediately left the meeting, lodged a police complaint and went to the hospital.
He has sent a report to the state MIC headquarters that in turn forwarded it to the national headquarters.
“We cannot condone hooliganism. During the meeting, there were others who uttered verbal abuses at me,” he said.
He added that assault was the first since he became chairman three years ago.
Johor MIC chief K.S. Balakrishnan said such an incident should not have happened and he would leave it to the party headquarters to take a decision.
At the national level, MIC’s long-time president S. Samy Vellu himself has been facing a challenge since the party fared badly in the parliamentary poll in March this year, its parliamentary strength reduced from 16 to three.