Malaysian PM said, “I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, is now taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship.”
Staff Reporter / New Delhi
India has asked Malaysia to refrain from commenting on the internal developments in India without a right understanding of the facts.
The External Affairs Ministry termed the remarks of the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Citizenship Amendment Act as factually inaccurate.
The Ministry said, the Citizenship Amendment Act provides for citizenship through naturalization to be fast-tracked for non-citizens who are persecuted minorities from three countries.
The Act does not impact in any manner on the status of any citizen of India or deprive any Indian of any faith of her or his citizenship.
Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday spoke out against the amended citizenship law, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, saying “people are dying” because of this law. New Delhi was quick to reject the comments as “factually inaccurate”, and called upon Malaysia to refrain from commenting on internal developments in India.
Talking to reporters after visiting the media centre at the Kuala Lumpur Summit on Friday, the Malaysian PM said, “I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, is now taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship.”
“If we do that here, you know what will happen. There will be chaos, there will be instability and everyone will suffer,” he said. “Already people are dying because of this law, so why is there a necessity to do this when all this while, for 70 years almost, they have lived together as citizens without any problems.”
His comments assume significance as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains and Parsis — but not Muslims — who entered the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014.