Singapore Probes Anti-Indian Online Abuse: PM Lawrence Wong Warns

Singapore authorities have opened a probe into racist and xenophobic posts aimed at people of Indian origin after comments linked to the Nepal floods and to debate over Singapore Airlines Ltd.'s possible investment in Air India Ltd. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said prejudice must not be allowed to become normal in the multiracial city-state.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Wong said recent online discussions had shown “an uglier side”. Channel News Asia quoted him as saying: “We can and should have robust debates. But we should never use seemingly legitimate arguments as a cover to fuel prejudice against any community or hostility towards foreigners.” Wong said he had discussed the developments with his Cabinet colleagues and that this was why Shanmugam had spoken about it. He also said such views did not represent Singapore as a whole and should not be treated as harmless online chatter. “If such behavior goes unchecked, it can become normalized, deepen mistrust between communities, and pull us apart,” Wong said.

His comments followed Senior Minister K Shanmugam's statement on Saturday that police had been asked to investigate and that platforms would be asked to take down comments that breach the rules. In June, authorities ordered social media platforms to block access to 14 posts targeting Singapore's Indian community.

Floods And Backlash

Nine Singaporeans have been uncontactable since flash floods swept through parts of Tibet and Nepal. The missing Singaporeans were identified as Rengarajan Prabu, Shalinny Deavy Elan Sozan, Subramaniam Diraviam, Rajesvaran Ayyavoo, Estee Loeh, Ghosh Aditi, Ng Kit Kuen, Shubakshi Rawla and Sumit Rawla. Shanmugam told the media that some posts after the tragedy suggested the missing were “not our own”.

One post used ABNN, a slur for Indians. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs later highlighted about 20 racist comments, most of them in comment threads under local news outlets' social media pages. Some of those messages used “CECA faces”, a slur referring to the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, signed between New Delhi and Singapore in June 2005 and long used as a grievance by opponents of immigration.

Air India Debate

A second flashpoint emerged around Singapore Airlines' potential stake in Air India. Shanmugam said the online conversation around that issue was also laced with anti-Indian abuse. He said police had been asked to look into the matter and platforms would be asked to remove comments that breach rules. Shanmugam described the online remarks as “shameful” and “totally unacceptable”.

He said the government would not step into any decision to invest in Air India and that such choices should be made on commercial grounds. He added that Temasek Holdings Pte., the state-owned investor and majority owner of Singapore Airlines, does not answer to the government for its individual investments.

People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Air India is close to securing 100 billion rupees ($1.06 billion) in aid from Tata Sons Pvt. and Singapore Airlines as the carrier deals with the fallout from a turbulent year. The money would be tied to performance milestones and paid out in instalments, the people said. The support would be proportional to shareholding, with Tata Sons owning 74.9% of Air India and Singapore Airlines the remainder.

Wider Tensions

Singapore has an overall population of over six million, made up of about 75 per cent Chinese, 15 per cent Malays and roughly nine per cent Indians, with the rest from elsewhere. A diplomatic observer told PTI that the prosperous city-state is trying to cope with a shrinking population caused by a low birth rate and relies on foreign talent to keep its economy moving, even as the wider global network has been hurt by the conflict in the Middle East.

Wong said Singapore had faced similar tensions before, pointing to the Covid-19 period, when “anti-foreigner” and “racial sentiments” were stirred, and to debates over the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. He also said similar sentiments surfaced during the 2025 general election, when he warned against bringing race and religion into politics.

“There will always be people who seek to exploit our differences,” Wong said. While it is impossible to prevent every hateful post from appearing online, Singaporeans can decide how they respond. “We can reject such views and refuse to give them more space or legitimacy...Singapore has held together because we have consistently rejected attempts to divide us along racial or religious lines, and chosen instead to recognise one another as fellow Singaporeans,” said the prime minister.

Shanmugam said there had been more racist remarks aimed at Indians recently, including attacks on senior executives at Temasek Holdings Pte. over their ethnicity. He also said Temasek chief executive Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, who is of Indian origin, had been subjected to cyberbullying. Temasek is the majority shareholder in Singapore Airlines, which holds a 25.1 per cent stake in Tata-owned Air India. Comments referred to a Reuters report from last month that said the airline had asked both shareholders for roughly 1.5 billion dollars in fresh equity. Shanmugam said social media users claimed Sandrasegara would favour Air India because he is ethnically Indian, and called the attacks “vile”, “nasty” and “libellous”.