“If inviting the prime minister to address the party assembly is construed as us (MIC) jumping to PN, then that is the most idiotic thing.

“To be fair, we should invite him. He gave my deputy president a minister’s post without the recommendation of Barisan Nasional (BN). That is the truth, unless someone can dispute it,” he told reporters at a press conference after the AGM.

He was responding to claims that MIC was moving towards supporting PN by inviting Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to address the assembly.

“My conscience is very clear. I know I have not insulted anybody although my party has been insulted in so many ways over the years,” he added.

Vigneswaran admitted that MIC is dependent on BN, adding that if the coalition was the ruling government, the party would naturally be a part of it.

He said, however, that MIC was now a very mature party and would not follow others blindly.

“We’ve been following them (BN) blindly for 55 years. Now that we open our mouths to raise some questions, we are being seen as disloyal.”

Vigneswaran added that it was important in any relationship to “agree to disagree”.

“You cannot just cut off ties without question, adding that all he had asked was ‘if Umno could cooperate with PAS, why not PPBM?’

“I am asking who is going to lead BN in the next general election? People want to know what is the best option.

“For me, it is the present government. What wrong did I do? I never brought up anybody’s personal matters,” he said.

To a question on working with PPBM, Vigneswaran said that the party should cooperate with PPBM as its aim was to strengthen the coalition by bringing in more parties.

“Obviously we are very close to Umno. We have been working with them for a long time. But they must give us good reasons when asking us to do certain things.

“For me, I cannot do irrational things. It not only reflects badly on me but also the party. MIC has been taught to respect the Malays, Rukun Negara, Islam and government policies.”