Singapore's Prime Minister made one small factual error in his thoughtful National Day Rally speech when he spoke about the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002. He said Hindu pilgrims travelling on a train were massacred by the Muslims in Ahmedabad. No, the massacre took place when the train stopped at the railway station in the town of Godhra. The Hindus retaliated by massacring the Muslims in Ahmedabad. Wikipedia sums up the Gujarat riots. The mistake could have been easily avoided by checking the Internet.

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But, on the whole, the Prime Minister is giving a good speech. He has been speaking for more than 90 minutes, and the audience is still listening with rapt attention. And so am I, watching the webcast at home.

PS: He has just finished speaking. He spoke for more than 100 minutes and gave a fine performance – a good speech backed by fine audiovisuals on the big screens behind him.

Update 2:

My ears did not deceive me. Here's the relevant part of the speech from Asia One. The Prime Minister was speaking about the racial and religious harmony that exists in Singapore – and how a victim of the Gujarat riots has come to love this peaceful nation and become a proud Singaporean. The Prime Minister said:

Finally on religion, let me share with you one story, true story which was in an Indian newspaper recently, The Asian Age, picked up in the Straits Times, about a young man from Gujarat, Muslim, who migrated to Singapore after Hindu/Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002.

You may remember that there were very bad Hindu/Muslim riots. A train carrying Hindu pilgrims was stopped in Ahmadebad (sic), set on fire, circumstances unclear but 50-odd men, women and children burnt to death, trapped in the train.

(The Prime Minister attributed the story to the Asian Age. But the Asian Age story did not mention the train burning. It merely said the young man came to Singapore after the Gujarat riots in which his father and two other family members were killed.)

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