India
summons Malaysia’s
top diplomat in New Delhi
23 Dec 2019
PETALING
JAYA: India’s Ministry of External Affairs has summoned Malaysia’s acting head
of mission in New Delhi to convey its displeasure over remarks by Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad about the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The
Wire, an Indian news website, said “the summoning of the Malaysian embassy’s
charge d’affaires took place a day after India had issued an official statement
urging the Malaysian leader to refrain from commenting on India’s internal
affairs, ‘especially without a right understanding of the facts’.”
India’s
Parliament recently approved the Citizenship Amend-ment Act, which offers
citizenship to non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.Citizenship
will be allowed for others such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians from
the three neighbouring nations. Demonstrations have erupted following the
passing of the law.
On
Friday, Dr Mahathir said the move was “regrettable” as the law was
discriminatory to Muslims.
“Already
people are dying because of this law, so why is there a necessity to do this
thing when all this while, for 70 years almost, they have lived together as
citizens without any problems?” Dr Mahathir said.
The
Wire, quoting sources, said the Malaysian charge d’affaires was told that “such
remarks are neither in keeping with accepted diplomatic practice of
non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, nor with the state of our
bilateral relations”.
The
report noted that this was not the first source of friction between India and
Malaysia in recent months.
“In
October, India had also asked Malaysia to ‘bear in mind the friendly relations
between the two countries and desist from making such comments’ after (Dr Mahathir)
had raised about Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly, ” The Wire
said.
.
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