Malaysian PM Mahathir raises voice against Indian citizenship law

On Friday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad spoke out against India's revised citizenship law, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, saying "people are dying" as a result of that law. New Delhi was swift to dismiss the remarks as "completely false" and called on Malaysia not to comment on internal changes in India, the Indian Express reports.

Upon visiting the media center at the Kuala Lumpur Summit on Friday, reporters were told by the Malaysian PM, "I'm sad to see that India, which continues to be a secular state, is now taking action to strip some Muslims of their citizenship."

"People are already dying because of this rule, so why is it appropriate to do so when they have lived together as people without any issues for almost 70 years?" His words take importance as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Catholics, Jains and Parsis — but not Muslims— who have joined Pakistan Bangladesh, Afghanistan.

Mahathir said that people from the Chinese and Indian community were granted citizenship by Malaysia.

In response to these remarks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement in New Delhi, "Malaysia's Prime Minister has commented once again on a subject that is completely within India. The Citizenship Amendment Act calls for the accelerated identification of citizenship for non-citizens who are oppressed minorities from three nations by naturalization. The Act does not change the status of any Indian citizen in any way, or deprive any Indian of any confidence of his or her citizenship. "Mahathir had reflected in recent months on the move made by the Indian government to revoke the special status under Article 370 to Jammu and Kashmir.

Mahathir had said at the UN General Assembly in September that India had "invaded and occupied" Kashmir, also claimed by Pakistan as a disputed Muslim-majority territory.