Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has criticised Modi’s government over the enactment of new citizenship law, which discriminates against Muslims and has triggered nationwide deadly protests.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 on Friday, Mahathir tagged the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as an unnecessary and reckless political deadly step, which could cause divisions among diverse ethno-religious Indians have “lived together for 70 years”.
“People are dying because of this law. Why is there a necessity to do this when all the while, for 70 years, they have lived together as citizens without any problem?” he asked.
The new law opens ways for only non-Muslim “persecuted” minorities from three neighboring countries to get citizenship.
Indian Muslims and non-Muslim activists have accused the 94-year-old Prime Minister of  planning to make India a Hindu nation, disregarding and marginalizing over 200 million Muslim citizens, who form nearly 14 percent of India’s population.
“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,” said PM Modi.
PM Mahathir warns Indian government of the dangerous effect of this on Hindus living in Muslim-dominated countries around the globe.
“If we do that here, I do not know what will happen. There will be chaos and instability, and everybody will suffer,” said Pm Mahathir, amid deadly protests in India over the CAA, which has so far claimed the lives of at least nine people.
After the Muslim weekly congregational prayer on Friday, the uproar against the UN-tagged ‘fundamentally discriminatory’ law spread throughout the country, most especially in Muslim-dominated district of the capital New Delhi, with thousands of protesters holding Indian flag and chanting slogans against the Modi government.
Hundreds of people have been arrested and detained nationwide since the inception of this uproars last week, as authorities impose a ban on public gatherings to reduce tensions that could come up as a result of the discriminatory law.
