After a prolonged silence, several PKR leaders today lashed out at businessman KS Nallakaruppan over his attacks on the opposition party and its leaders.

Nallakaruppan, 61, has been on the warpath against PKR since he quit the party last month. The attacks have been featured mainly through Tamil daily Malaysia Nanban .

In his latest outburst, Nallakaruppan on Wednesday urged Indians not to join PKR as they would have no future there.

In response, PKR supreme council member N Gobalakrishnan at a press conference today challenged Nallakaruppan to a public debate on the role of Indians in PKR.

He said Indian members were well represented in the party leadership and had taken on many community issues including voicing support for Nallakaruppan when he was detained in connection with the trial of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim in the late 90s.

"Nallakaruppan is a prominent corporate figure who rose from humble beginnings. We urge him to confine himself to business and not come and play in the mud of politics," he said.

Wild claims

Another PKR supreme council member S Manikavasagam said Nallakaruppan had been invited numerous times during his short stint as a party member to take up issues faced by the community but the latter had declined.

"Indian leaders in the party had taken up so many issues - custodial deaths, temple demolitions, Tamil schools, squatter issues and the Kampung Medan incident - but what has he done?

"He just goes for functions to be garlanded and pose for pictures for his newspaper," said Manikavasagam, who was Nallakaruppan's deputy when the latter headed the Kepong PKR division.

PKR is also offended with the frequent claims by Nallakaruppan that party members are leaving in droves because of his decision to quit.

Manikavasagam said these claims were grossly exaggerated and challenged Nallakaruppan to back up his claims with facts.

On June 16, Nallakaruppan had claimed that 1,000 PKR members had left the Gombak division and 35 branches had been closed down (see pix).

"We don't even have 1,000 members in Gombak, let alone the 35 branches he described," said Manikavasagam.

Recently, Nallakaruppan had also claimed that 1,500 Indian PKR members had quit from the Tampin division, 200 left the Rasah division and 150 left the Tun Razak division.

These figures have all been disputed.

'I brought 10,000 members'

Contacted later, Nallakaruppan strongly rebuffed suggestions of a public debate with Gobalakrishnan.

"He has got no capacity to challenge me in public. If it is Anwar, I will consider it... he (Gobalakrishnan) is nothing. He is not known in the party. He doesn't even have 10 followers."

In Wednesday's Malaysia Nanban report, Nallakaruppan called Gobalakrishnan an 'amateur politician'.

He also accused PKR of lying about the number of members he had brought into the opposition party.

"I submitted more than 10,000 forms to the party filled by Indians from all over the country. How can they say I only brought in less than 200 members?" he asked.

In a press conference yesterday, PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali said Nallakaruppan had obtained 2,000 membership forms from the party but only brought in 136 members.

Nallakaruppan, a close associate of Anwar, joined PKR last August. He left the party citing disappointment with Anwar for not fulfilling several promises.