Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is on a visit to India, raised the issue of minorities in India on Tuesday. He said that the Indian government has to face ‘some serious issues’ that hurt the sentiments of minorities or religious sentiments. He also expressed hope that India will continue to play its right role in dealing with the issues of minorities.
Speaking at an event of the Indian Council of World Affairs in Delhi, the Malaysian Prime Minister said, “I do not deny the fact that you (Indian government) have to face some serious issues affecting minorities or religious sentiments. But we hope that India will continue to play its rightful role to deal with it.”
He further said, ‘I have also mentioned this to PM Modi that there was a time when Nehru, Zhou Enlai (former Chinese Prime Minister), Sukarno (first President of Indonesia) and (Julius) Nyerere (former President of Tanzania) together stood up for the Global South against colonialism and imperialism, fought to ensure that we recognize humanity, freedom, and dignity for men and women.’
Malaysia-India relations are slowly coming back on track
Ibrahim has given this statement at a time when bilateral relations between India and Malaysia are slowly coming back on track. When India removed Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August 2019, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohammad had criticized it. Mahathir had also cornered India over the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA). India had lodged strong objections to this and stopped oil exports to Malaysia.
India-Malaysia relations are now slowly improving, however, controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik remains a major obstacle in advancing bilateral relations. Naik fled from India in 2016 and was granted asylum by Malaysia in 2018. Naik is accused of giving inflammatory speeches, money laundering and promoting terrorism in India. ED also filed a chargesheet against Zakir Naik in the terror funding case in 2019.
What did the Malaysian PM say about Zakir Naik?
Malaysian Prime Minister Ibrahim has also made a big statement about Zakir Naik during his visit to India. He has said that if India provides sufficient evidence against Naik, his government can think about extraditing Naik to India.
Anwar Ibrahim said that this issue was not raised in his talks with PM Modi and the relations between the two countries should not be affected by this issue.
He said, ‘First of all, the Indian side did not raise this issue. PM Modi had raised this issue long ago, a few years ago. We will not forgive terrorism. We have been strict about it and have been working together with India on many issues against terrorism. But I believe that this one matter should not come in the way of taking our bilateral relations forward.’