Vigneswaran told FMT that the last time he met Zahid, the Umno president, in his capacity as the MIC president was about two years ago.
“I also met him about three months ago. I was at a national unity meeting which he also attended.”
He also said he had not met Zahid to discuss the party’s position in BN following talk that MIC was heading towards leaving the coalition to join Perikatan Nasional.
And while he could not speak for MCA, Vigneswaran said as far as MIC was concerned, his meeting with Zahid, which was supposed to take place last Thursday, was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.
“So I am very surprised by his remarks. I really don’t know who the leaders he had been talking to are. As far as we are concerned, any discussions must be done with the top leadership,” he said when asked to comment on news reports quoting Zahid on the matter.
According to a Mingguan Malaysia report, Zahid said he had met MIC and MCA leaders two to three times last week as questions linger over the parties’ future in BN.
Zahid was quoted as saying that certain leaders were perhaps in need of “toys” and that “when they do not get their ‘toys’, they start stomping their feet”.
He also said the voice of certain leaders did not reflect that of the grassroots.
Zahid said BN would consider providing government posts for MCA and MIC after the next general election.
Vigneswaran thanked Zahid but repeated that MIC was not interested in government posts.
He also dismissed Zahid’s claim of a study conducted by BN which purportedly revealed that MIC’s grassroots were not keen on the party quitting the coalition.
“I was not aware of such research,” he said.
On the other hand, he said the MIC leadership had already met the divisional committee members of most of the key states and received some very encouraging and sensible feedback.
“They, too, were concerned about how MIC is being treated by the BN leadership. They want the party to be treated with some dignity. They told the CEC to do what it thinks is best for MIC’s future,” he said, referring to the central executive committee.