Speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 on Friday, the Malaysian Prime Minister had reportedly questioned the ‘necessity’ of the Citizenship Act, when Indians have ‘lived together for 70 years’.
Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar. (Photo: Twitter/@MEAIndia)
The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday summoned the Malaysian Charge d’Affaires to lodge a solemn protest over the remarks made by Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad on the newly amended Citizenship Act in Kuala Lumpur.
“According to media reports, Malaysia’s Prime Minister has yet again remarked on a matter that is entirely internal to India. CAA provides for citizenship through naturalisation to be fast-tracked for non-citizens who are persecuted minorities from three countries,” the MEA said in a statement.
“The CAA doesn’t impact the status of any Indian citizen or deprive any Indian of any faith of her/his citizenship. Malaysian PM’s remark is factually inaccurate. We call upon Malaysia to refrain from commenting on internal developments in India, without the right understanding of facts,” the statement read.
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India had conveyed that such remarks are “neither in keeping with the accepted diplomatic practice of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, nor with the state of bilateral relations between the two nations”.
It was also conveyed that such remarks are both “ill-informed and insensitive”. Malaysia was asked to take a long-term and strategic view of the bilateral relations.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 on Friday, the Malaysian Prime Minister had reportedly questioned the “necessity” of the Citizenship Act, when Indians have “lived together for 70 years”.
“I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, now is taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship,” the Malaysian Prime Minister was quoted as saying by media.
“If we do that here, I do not know what will happen. There will be chaos and instability, and everybody will suffer,” he added.
This is the second time that New Delhi has lodged its protest against Malaysia for interfering in India’s “internal issue”.
Earlier, India had slammed the country for supporting Pakistan over the Kashmir issue.
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