Saying the problem was not about the figures, the Penang deputy chief minister II added: “The problem is about the lack of political will on the part of the government to resolve citizenship woes of Indians who were born and bred in the country”.

He was commenting on a statement by Prime Minister Najib Razak that a claim by the opposition that about 300,000 Malaysian Indians were without citizenship papers was baseless.

“This is a fairy tale. We only have 2,500 applications (for citizenship from Malaysian Indians)” Najib had said yesterday.

Ramasamy said in a statement today: “Just because there were only 2,500 applicants for Malaysian citizenship, does not tell us anything about the number of Indians who do not have citizenship in the country.”

He said Najib should not dismiss the number of 300,000 stateless Indians just because there were only 2,500 applications.

If the 300,000 figure was a gross overestimation, Ramasamy said, the government should provide the correct figure.

“Surely, Najib with all the government agencies at his disposal could have arrived at an estimated figure of those who do not have citizenship in the country.

“Rather than doing this, he lambasted the opposition for grossly exaggerating the number of stateless Indians.”

Ramasamy said if it took more than 60 years for Indians born before independence to get their identity papers, “then one can imagine the extent of the problem”.

“Without the push exerted by those top leaders in Umno, the citizenship woes of Indians and others will continue for some time.”

He said giving citizenship to a few hundred Indians “now and then”, especially before the general election, was hardly the way to resolve the long standing issue of identity for those who were qualified and entitled.

“My question to Najib: tells us how many Indians are without citizenship in the country? Until a figure is arrived, it does not make sense for him to dismiss the 300,000 figure given by the opposition.”