He said Indians have been “catapulted into importance” and dubbed “kingmakers”, especially in constituencies where they could make a difference.

However, under normal circumstances, the welfare and well-being of the community was hardly given any attention, he said.

“It serves no purpose to call Indians ‘kingmakers’ when they only receive due attention from politicians before the general election and are forgotten until the next election,” the Penang deputy chief minister said in a statement.

Ramasamy said the biggest obstacle that continued to impede the development of the community was the lack of a level playing field.

He said that what the community needed was for institutional racism to be done away with, rather than being called “kingmakers”.

“Dishing out a few million now and then is not going to assist the Indian community. Such a practice will merely reinforce their dependency on the government,” he said.

Earlier, Bersatu deputy president Ahmad Faizal Azumu said the key to retaining the Tambun seat in GE15 for him would be the votes from the Indian community, calling them “kingmakers” in the constituency.

Faizal, who won in Tambun on a Pakatan Harapan (PH) ticket in the last general election in 2018, is likely to be in a multi-cornered fight, involving PH chairman Anwar Ibrahim.