KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has spoken out against India's recently-approved citizenship legislation, which appears discriminatory towards Muslims.
"I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, is now taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship.
"If we do that here, you know what will happen. There will be chaos, there will be instability and everyone will suffer.
"Already people are dying because of this law, so why is there a necessity to do this when all this while, for 70 years almost, they have lived together as citizens without any problems," he told reporters after visiting the media centre at the Kuala Lumpur Summit on Friday (Dec 20).
India's parliament recently passed a law which offers citizenship to migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan - but not if they are Muslims.
Dr Mahathir added that Malaysia has granted citizenships to the Chinese and Indian community.
On US President Donald Trump's impeachment, he said he believes that even Republicans feel that Trump is the wrong person to lead the country.
"The impeachment is a judgment of Congress, which are mostly Democrats. "However, I'm quite sure even Republicans feel that he is the wrong leader, that he has breached their rules and laws, and also their constitution," Dr Mahathir said.
He declined, however, to comment when asked if the KL Summit 2019 would make a stand over Xinjiang, which houses re-education camps for the Uygur ethnic group.
"This meeting isn't about politics - not even about religion. It's about developing Muslim countries," he said.
