NEW DELHI/KUALA LUMPUR: India has reacted in rage towards Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad’s criticism of the controversial citizenship act that will render a huge number of Muslims stateless.
It summoned the Malaysian ambassador and recorded its protest against PM Mahathir’s comments on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, or the CAA.
Its foreign ministry stated in a statement according to India Today that he had issued “factually inaccurate” remarks on its “internal” matters and that Malaysia should “refrain from commenting on internal developments in India, especially without a right understanding of the facts”.
Earlier, the Malaysian premier had questioned the CAA’s “necessity” and asked why was such a law needed when everyone had lived “together as citizens without any problem.”
“People are dying because of this law,” he had said during the Kuala Lumpur Summit, which aimed to “do something” to improve the lives of Muslims and overcome Islamophobia.
Malaysia provided shelter and citizenship to those coming from India and China, “even when they do not qualify”, and all those people were part of the government, Mahathir said. However, it is disappointing to see India excluding Muslims in such a manner.
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“But I am sorry to see India, which claims to be a secular state, now taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship,” he said.
If Malaysia did what is being done in India, the world knows it would have created a frenzy everywhere, undermined stability, and impacted a lot of people.
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“Of course, if we do that here, you know what will happen. There will be chaos, instability, and everybody will suffer,” the Malaysian PM had noted.
