‘Downright heartless’: Netizens slam ‘racist’ comments on daughters’ appeal for parents missing in Nepal floods
Netizens have criticised “racist” comments questioning the nationality of a Singaporean couple whose daughters appealed for help after they went missing in the devastating Nepal-Tibet floods.
Nine Singaporeans were among more than 3,000 people still missing after catastrophic flash floods struck the Himalayan border on Aug 26. At least 800 people have been killed.
Among those missing are Shubakshi Rawla, 49, and her husband Sumit Rawla, 53, both Singaporeans.
Their daughters, Parnika, 20, and Kenisha, 15, appealed for information about their parents in a video posted online on Aug 28.
According to The Straits Times, the couple were on their way to Tibet for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage and were last reported to be in or around Timure, a Nepali town near the border with Tibet.
The hotel where they had spent the previous night, Hotel Kailash in Gatte Khola near Timure, was reportedly washed away by a torrent of mud and rocks.
‘Downright heartless’: Netizens react to ‘racist’ comments
When videos of the daughters appealing for help were posted by news outlets such as CNA, some users began questioning whether the family were really Singaporean.
CNA subsequently disabled the comment section on its post.
Several netizens took to social media to condemn the remarks, calling them “racist” and lacking in “basic human compassion”.
“Isn’t it actually so appalling that some of y’all can be so hateful and so racist that even a post of two young girls appealing for help to find their parents who are missing from the floods in Nepal can just be filled with insensitive and unnecessary comments”,” said TikTok user @tbh.neha.
She noted that the purpose of the daughters’ post was to seek help, yet some people still saw it as an “opportunity to question their nationality”.
“Even if they aren’t Singaporeans... why does it matter right now?” she said.
Her video, uploaded on Aug 30, has since garnered more than 19,700 views, 2,600 likes and dozens of comments.
Another TikTok user, @praveen, expressed similar sentiments, asking in his caption: “Where is empathy and basic human compassion in Singapore?”
“I don’t understand how or when someone’s nationality becomes relevant when they’re missing and their family is eagerly waiting for them to return home,” he said.
His video, posted on Aug 30, has since amassed more than 25,400 views, 2,900 likes and 70 comments.
Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC MP and North West District Mayor Alex Yam also took to Facebook on Aug 31 to address the comments.
“While families wait desperately for news of their loved ones, a loud minority of people apparently looked at the names and faces of those missing and decided that this was the moment to ask whether they were really Singaporean,” he wrote.
Yam said some commenters had even expressed hopes that people would remain stranded or die, while others questioned why Singapore authorities should help them.
“Seriously??” Yam said.
He said there was a time and place for people to debate immigration and citizenship policies, but “surely not like this... Not over people who may have lost their lives, while their children and loved ones are waiting for news”.
“You do not have to know someone to have compassion for them. You do not have to share their ancestry to pray for their safety. And you certainly do not have to diminish someone else’s Singaporeanness to prove your own,” he wrote.
“Some of the comments are not just racist. They are downright heartless.”
Daughters appeal for missing parents after Nepal floods
Parnika and Kenisha said they had struggled to get information about what happened to their parents, so they went to social media to appeal for help under the handle @srkuniversenp.
Parnika last spoke to them over FaceTime at around 6.40am on Aug 26, shortly after landing in New Delhi from Singapore.
Her mother told her she was going to get tea with Sumit and their friends. The family said the couple were later seen at a tea stall in the Rasuwagadhi border area.
“Nobody’s telling us anything. We don’t know what’s going on. We don’t know if they’re rescued, where they are, if the hotel they’re at has been searched yet,” Parnika told CNA.
“We keep asking people, and people keep giving us phone numbers, and those phone numbers are not reachable. We have no information. We’re sad and we’re confused.”
The sisters asked rescue teams, locals and anyone in the Rasuwagadhi and Kerung areas to share any information about their parents.
Shubakshi’s sister, Dipti Bhatnagar, 45, told The Straits Times that the past few days had been a “living nightmare”.
She flew in from New Delhi with her brother Khushal Abrol, 42, and arrived in Kathmandu on Aug 28 to help search for the couple.
“I want someone to really slap me and wake me up from this dream,” she said on Aug 30. “You have to take that 1 per cent chance; maybe someone (still) has that last breath.”
The siblings have been meeting Nepali government officials, foreign embassies and representatives from Himalayan Glacier, the travel agency the Rawlas were travelling with.
There has been no news of the couple’s whereabouts, or of the more than 40 others in the Himalayan Glacier group travelling to Tibet.
According to ST, the Rawlas have been based in Vancouver in Canada for over five years. Sumit, who has a merchant navy background, works as a safety consultant for chemical tankers and Shubakshi is a nutritionist.
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