The Hindraf battle cry 'Makkal Sakti' has now turned into a cudgel to whack the newly registered Indian based political party sporting that name.

sri lankan war victims fund 03062009 charles santiago And leading the charge is Klang MP Charles Santiago ( right ) who declared that the cry should never have been hijacked from the community by those leaning towards the BN.

He was speaking before a crowd of 300 who gathered at the Dewan Hamzah in Klang to condemn the theft of the cry by former national Hindraf coordinator, RS Thanenthiran, to name his new party.

The object of Santiago's outrage is the Malaysian Makkal Sakthi Party (MMSP) which is scheduled to be launched by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak tomorrow.

"The MMSP itself has now become a mandore of the Indians after accusing MIC of being one," he added.

All five Hindraf activists and former ISA detainees were expected to join in the condemnation but only two, V Ganabatirao and K Vasantha Kumar, turned up.

Reward for splitting community

Ganabatirao took a dig at Thanenthiran by saying that he has already been rewarded as the prime minister himself will be launching the party tomorrow.

"This is the reward that he is getting for being hard working in dividing the Indian community when he split Hindraf apart."

He also posed a question to the crowd why Thanenthiran did not face arrest for organising over 300 rallies as revealed by former home minister Syed Hamid Albar.

NONE However, when he (Ganabatirao) ( left ) organised one on Nov 25, 2007, he was detained under the Internal Security Act.

Ganabatirao, a DAP man, also questioned the police's real agenda for harassing his family as soon as he had started criticising MMSP as this had not happened when he was in Penang over the Kampung Buah Pala issue.

He also took pot shots at the founder of the MMSP as he had claimed the mantle of championing the release of the five held under the ISA.

"I call him a clown for claiming he had championed the release of the Hindraf 5."

Police harassing family

Ganabatirao also took Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary general, P Uthayakumar and Hindraf chair, P Waythamoorthy to task over their failure to condemn the battle cry hijack.

Meanwhile, Vasantha Kumar, who also addressed the crowd, reiterated the issues that he raised earlier over theft of the cry and Hindraf's 18- point petition to the government.

MIC CWC member KP Samy together with 50 others from the party were also among those present at last night's function organised by Hindraf supporters based in Klang and Shah Alam.