'It's over the limit to say these things in public,' he was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times.

'Throughout my political career, I have never spoken anything rude, rough or made anyone look un-gentlemanly.

'I don't know any other way to behave because that's the way I have been brought up.'

Vellu had also mocked Subramaniam over his supporters playing the Indian drum 'urumi mellam' on nomination day, saying that Subramaniam should also bring elephants, cats and bears next time.

'I don't know why he gets upset with the cultural music. He seems to think there is something evil about them. The group was well restrained and outside the compound. Is it wrong to play such instruments during nomination?' Subramaniam said.

He added that he was not intimidated by Vellu.

Vellu has been leading the MIC since 1979. The country's oldest party of ethnic Indians, MIC claims to speak for the two million ethnic Indians who forms eight percent of Malaysia's population.