Indian-origin rapper Subhas Nair jailed in Singapore over ‘inflammatory, racist’ online posts

Indian-origin musician Subhas Nair began a six-week jail term on Wednesday after losing a court appeal. The Singapore resident has been convicted for attempting to promote ill will among various racial and religious groups through online posts. 

The 32-year-old was first found guilty by a district court in 2023 amid outrage over statements made between July 2019 and March 2021. The allegations pertained to racially charged comments made by the musician during this period — including a YouTube video that saw Nair perform a song containing racist lyrics alongside his sister. The musician — whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair — had initially received a two-year conditional warning from the police for the controversial clip.

Nair however re-offended by posting racially tinted comments on social media. According to details outlined in the court order, Nair had claimed that calling out "racism and Chinese privilege" led to a two-year conditional warning and a media smear campaign while "actually conspiring to murder an Indian man" received only half that sentence. 

The High Court also noted that the appellant had “not pleaded guilty” or shown remorse for his actions. The appropriate sentence, the court added, for each of his four charges was three weeks of imprisonment. 

“The sentences for the first two charges were ordered to run consecutively, resulting in an aggregate sentence of six weeks’ imprisonment,” it added.