Stand-up comic Abhineet Mishra is at it again. Performing in his trademark style – to a room with no audience – the new “stand-up (not) comedy” video is a wake-up call to all those who have conveniently turned a blind eye to the floods in the North East.
Titled Staying Afloat, the video highlights the level of devastation caused by floods in Assam and other states of North East India. “You don’t drown in knee-deep water,” he says, pointing to the non-stop media coverage of a flood-like situation in Mumbai that lasted for a day, comparing it to the minimal attention that Assam gets even though it faces devastating floods every year.
Mishra’s video draws attention to what the floods bring to the North East every year: houses being washed away, millions of people being displaced, and an increase in the number of poaching incidents in the Kaziranga National Park.
He also comments on the hatred he gets for his work. “Trolls criticise me for asking questions of the BJP government, but I have to remind them that the flood situation under Congress was no better,” Mishra says. “Floods teach you a lesson in secularism. When there is flooding, nobody asks you about your ideology,” he adds.
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