Coronavirus: Indian superstar Rajinikanth offers supportive words to Singapore’s quarantined workers

‘This too shall pass,’ the 69-year-old star said in a Tamil New Year message to the workers who are under lockdown in the city state

More than 40 per cent of Singapore’s total of 3,252 infections are work permit holders, many of whom live in the country’s 43 mega-dorms

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Indian superstar Rajinikanth. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:44pm, 14 Apr 2020Updated: 5:30am, 15 Apr 2020

“This too shall pass.”

That was the Tamil New Year message from the hugely popular film star Rajinikanth on Tuesday to Singapore’s Tamil diaspora – including tens of thousands of quarantined guest workers – as the festival was commemorated with little fanfare amid a partial lockdown induced by the coronavirus pandemic.

The 69-year-old actor – revered by wide swathes of Tamil people as “Thalaivar” (leader) – joined a growing number of high-profile personalities who are offering such words of support to migrant workers, many of whom have been subject to strict lockdown conditions in their host countries.

In Singapore, a large of proportion of some 200,000 low-wage migrant workers currently quarantined in their cramped dormitories are from Bangladesh and the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Tamils and Bengalis marked their respective new years on Tuesday.

Across South Asia and Southeast Asia, millions of people will mark similar festivals this week in muted fashion. In Thailand, public Songkran festivities have been cancelled, and Myanmar has similarly axed official celebration of its Thingyan festival.

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