The appointment of four Indian ministers does not add value to the efforts to uplift the community, according to PKR vice-presidential hopeful K Vasantha Kumar.

He also claimed that the current Pakatan Harapan government is no different than its BN predecessor in this aspect.

The four Indian ministers are Gobind Singh (Multimedia and Communication), Dr Xavier Jeyakumar (Water, Land and Natural Resources), P Waythamoorthy (Minister in the Prime Minister's Department) and M Kulasegaran (Human Resources).

“Their appointments make no difference in the efforts to change the socio-economic status of the Indian community.

“The Harapan government should focus more on economic development. If this can be done, then the social ills afflicting the Indian community can be reduced in stages,” he told Malaysiakini.

The former ISA detainee claimed that the Harapan government's failure in focusing on the special manifesto for the Indian community showed that it is no different from BN.

“During BN's era, we were often oppressed. They (the government) never listened to our complaints and that is the reason the community rejected BN since the 2008 general election.

“Harapan should be giving adequate focus to the special manifesto, but I don't see any progressive steps in the new government,” he added.

Vasantha, a former Hindraf activist, said while Harapan is still a new government, this, however, cannot be used as an excuse to deflect criticism.

“We have a prime minister who served as the head of government for 22 years. To me, this is sufficient for the Harapan government to implement the special manifesto in stages.

“At least, the issue of statelessness should be resolved within 100 days.

“As far as I know, more than 12,000 citizenship applications are still being processed at the National Registration Department. Why the delay?” he asked.

Vasantha warned that Harapan might face an uphill task in garnering Indian votes in the next general election if it fails to address these issues.