PETALING JAYA: The Indian government has claimed that Dr Mahathir Mohamad's (pic) comments on their recently-approved Citizenship Amendment Act is factually inaccurate, and called for refrain from commenting on developments there.

India's Ministry of External Affairs claimed that the new law provides for citizenship through naturalisation to be fast-tracked for non-citizens who are persecuted minorities from three countries.

"The Act does not impact in any manner on the status of any citizen of India, or deprive any Indian of any faith of her or his citizenship.

"Therefore, the Prime Minister of Malaysia's comment is factually inaccurate. We call upon Malaysia to refrain from commenting on internal developments in India, especially without a right understanding of the facts," it said in a statement on Friday (Dec 20).

Dr Mahathir had said that the law was regrettable as it was discriminatory to Muslims.

The Prime Minister said he was sorry to see that India, despite being a secular state, was acting to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship.

"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?

"If we do that here, you know what will happen.

"There will be chaos, there will be instability and everyone will suffer," he told reporters after visiting the media centre during the Kuala Lumpur Summit on Friday.

India's parliament recently passed a law offering citizenship to migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

It allows fast-track citizenship for religious minorities, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – but does not mention those of Islamic faith – from the three neighbouring countries.

As a result, there have been violent demonstrations all over the country.

A few months ago, Dr Mahathir had also ruffled feathers in India for his comments on the situation in Kashmir.