Itanagar: Popular comedian Samay Raina’s popular YouTube show, India’s Got Latent, has landed in a soup with an FIR registered over ‘dog meat consumption’ remarks made by a contestant from Arunachal Pradesh.
During a members-only episode, Jessy Nabam told the host that people from Arunachal Pradesh often consume dog meat, although she personally had not. She added, “I know this because my friends do, and sometimes they even eat their pets.”
Although the panel of judges, including Balraj Singh Ghai, initially thought it to be a joke, she insisted it was true. The episode also had comedians Akash Gupta and Mallika Dua as judges.
According to media reports, an FIR was filed on January 31 by Armaan Ram Welly Bakha, a resident of Seppa, East Kameng district, and addressed to the officer-in-charge of Itanagar police station, alleging that Jessy’s comments were disrespectful and tarnished the image of the local community.
“An Arunachal Pradesh girl named Jessy Nabam is insulting our indigenous, local, and tribal people. She said we are dog-eating people and we eat our pets. I humbly request you that please take quick action in this matter so that in the future no one could do it again like Jessy Nabam did,” it read.
Neither Raina nor any other panellists have publicly reacted to the reports.
However, this is not the first time that remarks made at India’s Got Latent stoked a controversy. Uorfi Javed, who appeared as a special guest, had walked out of the show following derogatory remarks directed at her.
According to reports, a participant asked her an inappropriate question about the number of men she had been intimate with. What allegedly made the situation worse was Samay Raina’s indifferent reaction to the remark.
Later, Uorfi addressed the controversy on Instagram, sharing her thoughts in a story. She wrote, “I think I missed the memo, nowadays people think it’s cool to abuse someone or just shame someone for some views. I’m sorry but I’m not ok with anyone abusing me, or shaming me for my body counts (which they don’t know but they just assumed it must be high). All this for what? For 2 minutes of fame? The guy who abused me wasn’t even joking, he got legit mad at me when I asked him why he was faking being handicapped! He just abused me on the stage in front of so many people.”
Another contestant was also slammed for joking about Deepika Padukone’s struggle with depression.
