NEW DELHI: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticised the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur summit on Friday.
Questioning the ‘necessity’ of the Act, he said, “People are dying because of this law. Why is there a necessity to do this when all the while, for 70 years, they have lived together as citizens without any problem?”
“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 prime minister said.
“If we do that here, I do not know what will happen. There will be chaos and instability, and everybody will suffer,” he added.
The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement saying Mahathir Mohamad had remarked on India’s internal matter.
“Mohamad’s comment was factually inaccurate and Malaysia should refrain from commenting on internal developments in India, especially without a right understanding of the facts,” the statement 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,” it said.
Post the abrogation of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir, the Malaysian prime minister had accused India of ‘invading and occupying the country’ of Jammu and Kashmir.