.JPG)
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — India has reportedly summoned the Malaysian chargé d’affaires to protest against Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s recent remarks about its newly-passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Mumbai-based the Times of India cited official sources as saying that the Indian External Affairs Ministry said such remarks are “neither in keeping with accepted diplomatic practice of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, nor with the state of bilateral relations”.
The ministry reportedly told the diplomat that such remarks were “both ill-informed and insensitive” and urged Putrajaya to “take a long-term strategic view of the bilateral relations” instead.
Earlier, the ministry had accused Dr Mahathir’s remark of being “factually inaccurate” — claiming that the law is meant to expedite naturalised citizenship for those it described as persecuted minorities from three countries.
It also said Malaysia should refrain from commenting on India’s internal matters without proper facts.
Dr Mahathir called the CAA discriminatory against Muslims in remarks made at the inaugural Kuala Lumpur Summit ― an international gathering of Muslim world leaders to discuss problems plaguing their world.
He questioned the necessity for the amendment, noting that Indian citizens of all faiths have lived alongside one another since the country’s independence in 1948, adding that the revision aimed to remove the Muslim population from the republic.
Dr Mahathir also said that such a law would be unthinkable in multiracial, multireligious Malaysia as there would be chaos in the streets.
India’s Parliament passed the amendment to its Citizenship Act 1955 on December 11, providing citizenship for non-Muslim religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan fleeing persecution amid mass protests within its borders that resulted in nine deaths.
Critics claimed the amendment is a move by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party to sideline its 200 million Muslim citizens in an effort to make India more Hindu.
