MIC president S Samy Vellu today denied that shoes were thrown at him during a recent visit to Penang.

Quizzed on this at a press conference in Butterworth, he quipped: "They threw an atomic bomb at me...I threw the atomic (bomb) back."

samy vellu penang campaign 260208 discomfort However, he conceded that an argument erupted between him and the local Indian community when he visited Perai, in Butterworth, two weeks ago.

"Nothing happened. They didn’t throw a screwdriver at me. If they threw a screwdriver, I will take the screwdriver and use it for my car," he said, drawing laughter from local MIC leaders who were present.

Samy Vellu was met by reporters at the Batu Kawan MIC election operations room - one of his three stops at Indian-majority seats during a one-day visit to Penang.

He was asked to comment on rumours that an Indian woman had thrown a shoe at him when he was speaking to the crowd in Perai, which is an Indian-majority seat, on Feb 16.

According to rumours, the shoe did little to unnerve the seasoned politician, who purportedly replied to the crowd that he was not afraid of an atomic bomb, let alone a shoe. This was said to have resulted in a second shoe being thrown at him.

The media had reported that some 60 people blocked Samy Vellu’s car while he was leaving the function and criticised him for not helping the Indian community.

It was also reported that the MIC president was stuck in the car for about 30 minutes before being whisked away to safety by policemen.

Argument over arrests

Commenting further on the incident, the 72-year-old politician said there was an argument over the mass arrests in connection with the ‘roses’ demonstration organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).

samy vellu penang campaign 260208 crowd "They wanted me to tell the prime minister to release all of them, I said I can’t do that because I don’t have the power, so that’s the argument.

"Of course during the argument, somebody ‘bang, bang, bang’, all sorts of talk. We all human beings, when someone gets angry, they lose their heads," he said.

On that note, Samy Vellu promised that he would not prevent the people from approaching him to air their views.

"When I come here. I am an Indian, they are also Malaysian Indians. I have to allow them to talk to me, I don’t want anyone to block (the people)," he said.

Soon after this, an Indian trader was reportedly stopped by MIC members from approaching Samy Vellu during his brief visit to a market in Perai at his second stop in Penang.

According to eyewitnesses, the man who tried to approach Samy Vellu was shoved aside - and almost fell - while police personnel told the man to raise the issue at a nearby school hall, where the MIC president was holding a meet-the-people session.

Heavy police presence

Samy Vellu was escorted by a heavy police presence and flanked by MIC state leaders throughout his visit.

In Batu Kawan, at least six patrol cars and about 30 policemen accompanied him throughout his 45-minute programme with some 200 Indians from a residential area there.

samy vellu penang campaign 260208 discomfort Security was stepped up when he arrived in Perai, where a truck of light strike force personnel were also deployed to prevent any untoward incident.

The hall where he held his meet-the-people session was half-empty and some of those who turned up were also spotted in Batu Kawan earlier.

On his way out of the hall, Samy Vellu stopped several times when the locals tried to seek his help to solve their problems.

During his last stop at Bagan Dalam, a woman and her family tried in vain to seek the MIC president’s help to secure the release of her son who is being held under the Emergency Ordinance.

According to eyewitnesses, the woman later hurled abusive words at the MIC leader as Samy Vellu was getting into his car.