On 21 May 1991, Pandian was seriously injured while accompanying the then Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, when the latter was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack. Pandian was scheduled to translate the prime minister's speech for the local audience. Though opposed to LTTE, he was a critic of the Sri Lankan government's approach to the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils and called for peaceful political solutions. Speaking later about the incident he would say that he still carried pieces of shrapnel in his body. He was also amongst the first victims to call for the release of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, writing to the then Tamil Nadu Governor, Banwarilal Purohit, asking for their release on humanitarian grounds.