A day after strongly rebutting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad’s criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) saying his comments were ill-informed and “factually inaccurate,” New Delhi on Saturday summoned the Charge d’Affaires of Malaysian Embassy here to formally lodge its protest. Malaysia was also asked to take a long-term and strategic view of relations between the two countries.
Reacting to the Malaysian Prime Minister’s remarks, India said such comments are not in sync with established diplomatic practice of non-interference in any country’s internal affairs.
The Charged Affaires was summoned to the External Affairs Ministry and he was conveyed India’s anguish over Mohammad’s comments, official sources said.
It was also conveyed that such remarks are both ill-informed and insensitive, the sources said, adding Malaysia was asked to take a long-term and strategic view of the relations between the two countries.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 on Friday, the Malaysian Prime Minister questioned the “necessity” of the Citizenship Act, when Indians have “lived together for 70 years”, according to media reports.
“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.
“If we do that here, I do not know what will happen. There will be chaos and instability, and everybody will suffer,” he added.
Soon after these comments, India on Friday had said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is “a matter entirely internal to India” and does not impact the status of any citizen, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday adding the remarks were “factually inaccurate.”
“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.
India highlighted that the matter is entirely “internal” to India and asked Malaysia to “refrain from commenting without the right understanding of facts”.
The statement said the CAA provides for fast-tracked citizenship for non-citizens from persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. “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. The Malaysia Prime Minister had earlier criticized abrogation of Article 370 giving special status to Jammu & Kashmir and said at the Un General Assembly in September that Kashmir had been “invaded and occupied.” New Delhi had strongly reacted to these observations.