Singapore minister to pay tributes to Jayalalithaa

Rajalakshmi S Updated - January 16, 2018 at 12:40 AM.

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Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan is travelling to Chennai to pay tributes to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who had passed away last night.

Balakrishnan will be travelling with his Ministry officials, a government statement said.

Jayalalithaa, a popular leader who showered the poor with populist programmes, had died last night at a private hospital in Chennai after battling for life for the past 75 days.

The 68-year-old leader had suffered a massive cardiac arrest on Sunday evening.

According to official statistics, 74 per cent of Singapore’s population is of Chinese ethnicity, while 13 per cent are of Malay heritage and 9 per cent of Indian, including Tamils.

In Singapore, Tamil is an official language along with English, Mandarin and Malay.

Foreign Affairs Minister Balakrishnan was also born to a Tamil father.

Published on December 6, 2016 05:57