Political Involvement
It took Pandithan many years to build a career in the Malaysian Indian Congress. He climbed the ranks of the party the hard way like Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, whom he had regarded as his mentor. But after winning a seat in the party’s Central Working Committee his climb was rapid.
In 1981, he became party vice-president, commanding strong grassroots support from the Malaysian Indian community. After being re-elected for a third term as vice president in 1986, he won the Tapah parliamentary seat and was later appointed parliamentary secretary to the Trade and Industry Ministry.
However, he was issued a show cause letter on June 2, 1988, for alleging that the party leadership had failed to fight for the rights of the Malaysian Indian community and for allegedly practising caste-oriented politics. This was when bad blood between MIC president and Samy Vellu and Pandithan took the turn for the worse.
Two days later, he embarked on a “death fast” at the MIC headquarters’ car park, bringing along a coffin and accompanied by 50 supporters, in a bid to prove his innocence and to get charges of inciting violence and unrest within the party dropped. He stopped the fast after 28 hours, following an assurance by then deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam.
He was issued a second show-cause letter for bringing the coffin to the MIC headquarters and expelled from the party on July 16, 1988.
Read more about this topic: M. G. Pandithan
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