‘Factually inaccurate,’ says India on Malaysia PM’s remark on Citizenship law

NEW DELHI, Dec 21, 2019, The Asian Age. 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, in response to the “factually inaccurate” remarks of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on the country’s recently enacted legislation, The Asian Age reported.

“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.

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.

India has highlighted that the matter is entirely “internal” to India and asked Malaysia to “refrain from commenting without the right understanding of facts”.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament earlier this month and became an Act with the Presidential assent on December 12.