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Today’s NST analyses the reasons on why efforts are underway to get remove of MIC youth chief S.A. Vigneswaran from him post. Similarly, few other MIC youth leaders (S.Ramis-deputy, M.Kumaresan-secretary, K.Raj Kumar-information head, and S.Murugesan-CWC representative) who are above the “retirement” age of 41 would be asked to relinquish their post.

Meanwhile according to NST, his deputy, S. Ramis said some of the youth council members who, too, were asked to leave, would meet Samy Vellu in two weeks to seek an explanation. “Not all of us want to seek legal opinions on the age limit. We just want to ask Datuk Seri why we were asked to leave,” he said.

The NST says that members are not buying the reason given by MIC leadership on the removal of Vigneswaran.

Why was S. Vigneswaran, the once blue-eyed boy of the MIC president, asked to vacate his Youth chief post only now, two years past the due date?  This is the million ringgit question on the lips of those interested in MIC politics.

The party constitution says that the youth chief must vacate his post when he reaches his 41st birthday, yet Vigneswaran was allowed to stay on beyond the age limit. He is now 43.

Many are asking why not wait until he finishes his term, which ends next June, since he was an elected chief?

Vigneswaran had also been skipping CWC meetings and the Selangor MIC AGM recently.

Youth wing members said Vigneswaran’s absence from several central working committee meetings and the Selangor AGM further fuelled speculation that he could not see eye to eye with Samy Vellu.

A senior member of the party argued that since the Youth chief was elected, he should be allowed to finish his term. She also questioned why the Puteri and Putera chiefs were allowed to stay even though both had exceeded the age limit.

“If it was because Vigneswaran did not attend meetings, then he should have been referred to the disciplinary committee, not told to vacate his post,” she said.

Sources in the party said the sudden move to ask Vigneswaran to vacate his post was to ensure that he would not openly question the party supremo at the MIC annual general meeting next month.

It seems that the actual reason is that Samy Vellu does not like Vigneswaran any more. Vigneswaran is rumoured to be aligned to Palanivel, and opposes the reentry of Datuk Subra. Sources said the action was taken against Vigneswaran as he had been vocal in efforts to bring back former deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam into the mainstream politics of the party.

He had hoped that Palanivel would become the next party president and he would be the deputy. With Subramaniam back in mainstream politics, his hopes were dashed,

– said a source from the Youth wing.

It is also said that it was Vigneswaran who instigated Alex Thiagarajan and Jumbo Maniam to question Samy Vellu, and is also responsible to in organising the failed demonstration against at MIC Headquarters today. Vigneswaran denied both allegations.

According to NST:

… Samy Vellu’s statement in Tamil daily Makkal Osai on Thursday adds to the speculation that there is more to the story. Samy Vellu had told the daily that the person he had brought into politics was going against him by orchestrating the demonstration.  He said that the text messages informing people of the gathering had originated from Klang and he had traced the person responsible for them.  Samy Vellu said the person had contested for a parliamentary seat and lost heavily in the general election. The person had asked him to nominate him for a senatorship but he (Samy Vellu) had refused. Unhappy with the decision, the other man had lodged ACA reports to make trouble for him. “When that failed, he resorted to this.” Party insiders feel Samy Vellu was referring to Vigneswaran, who lost by 20,751 votes in the election.

According to a letter sent by party secretary general and Human Resource Minister Dr S.Subramaniam, Vigneswaran had passed the age of 40 (He is 43) thus have to let go of his post. He said the decision to ask them to clear out was taken at CWC meeting more than 2 weeks ago.

Says S.Subramaniam:

The party’s constitution states that a Youth leader or members in the Youth wing should not exceed the age of 40. When they reach their 41st birthday, they need to vacate their positions in the Youth wing

It seems that a MIC Youth representative to CWC, T Mohan (who stood for Batu Caves state seat) will be asked to run the wing until next year’s party elections.

However, Vigneswaran is not willing to let go of his position yet. He argues that the leaders can hold on to their positions until the end of their elected term in 2009. He says that MIC CWC made this allowance in 2006 because more than half of the national youth council members were affected by the ruling that they should resign upon reaching 41 years old. He further said that the age limit ruling was enforced before 2002, because at that time, the Youth leader was appointed by the president instead of being chosen via party elections.

Vigneswaran is planning to seek legal opinion (isn’t he a lawyer as well?) on a clause in the party constitution which appears to be open to interpretation. Once this is done, he will present it to the central working committee (CWC), the party’s decision-making body to review the decision.

There are some interesting questions here:

– Is there a similar rule for Putera and Puteri MIC positions?

– Why now and not before?

Whatever it is, expect Vigneswaran to say bye-bye soon. He can’t go against Samy and expect to win. I’m sure there’s a thick black book somewhere that will keep Vigneswaran under control for a long time.

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