Several Indian opposition leaders have taken Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to task for uttering "derogatory" remarks about Malaysian Indians when calling for a more multi-racial Barisan Nasional recently.

Speaking at the Johor BN convention on July 25, the prime minister quipped that it was very cheap for him to treat Malaysian Indian Congress president S Samy Vellu to a meal because he was a vegetarian.

All he had to do, Mahathir said, was to go and cut some blades of grass to serve the MIC president.

Carrying Mahathir's remarks in its July 26 edition, The Straits Times of Singapore also reported that the prime minister had apologised for the joke saying: "But that is the point. We can crack jokes and there is no tension.

"We have arguments but we eventually settled our differences," he was quoted as saying.

Keadilan supreme council member Dr Xavier Jeyakumar said that "while this was said as a joke, it is not funny because it shows the mindset of our PM towards Indians in this country".

"We only need to look at the position of Indians in this country after more than 20 years under the present premier," he told malaysiakini .

"The Indian working class has been neglected and is now even more marginalised than ever before," he added.

Addressing 5,000 BN component party members at the Johor Bahru convention, Mahathir said he believed the best way for the BN government to defeat [opposition party] PAS was for it to become more multi-racial.

He called PAS a "violent, chauvinistic and extremist" party that was prepared to see the country ruined by riots.

Xavier also claimed that the BN is still practising the divide-and-rule policy.

"With the Malays clearly divided, BN is looking towards the non-Malays to win elections. So the solution is to include every Tom, Dick and Harry into its fold," he said.

Bad to worse

"What is there for these parties? The BN will throw them a few crumbs and their leaders will be happy. The community at large will continue to be neglected and the situation for the lower income Indians will go from bad to worse," he added.

Xavier said these parties are driven only on the basis of religion, caste and language and that Malaysians have to move away from racial politics.

Selangor DAP state committee member S Ramakrishnan also took offence at Mahathir for his remarks on vegetarians.

He said Mahathir's remarks showed his "ignorance of the culture and religious values of the Indians".

"For a very informed person, the prime minister seemed very mis-informed. Not only Indians are vegetarians. More and more people are becoming vegetarians, even in the western world, not for religious purpose but some for health and because they love animals," he added.

Ramakrishnan, who is also DAP's estate, squatter, ex-mining bureau affair's chairperson called on Mahathir to be more sensitive and respectful of culture and values of other races and religions.