Comedian Samay Raina's comeback after a year-long silence has reignited debate on the Kashmiri Pandit migration after he termed the community's departure without a fight as "Kashmiri Pandit wisdom", prompting detractors to wonder whether it reflected prudence or apparent cowardice.
Samay, 28, who was born in Jammu to Kashmiri Pandit parents from the Valley's Seer Hamdan village, recently announced his return with a new comedy special, Still Alive, coming more than a year after a controversy surrounding his YouTube show India’s Got Latent. The show was accused of promoting obscenity, leading to its removal from YouTube.
The Still Alive video on the new show has stirred a row after he compared his retreat with that of his community in the 1990s. While the remark struck a chord with many, it was met with scepticism from others.
"You only fight when the fight is fair, when you have a chance of winning. You only fight when the fight is fair.... (It is) Kashmiri Pandit wisdom. We Pandits were only 5 per cent in Kashmir. If we had taken up arms, my parents (if they chose to) fight for our motherland, everyone would have died," Samay said in the video.
An army of Kashmiri Pandit social media accounts praised him for articulating what they see as the community’s perspective. "For decades, we tried to explain the cause but in vain and now Samay has done it for us. The whole community is indebted," Dr Sunil Bhat, a radiologist, said.
But some took offence. "Those going gaga over a comedian’s sermons do read. History never offered the oppressed a 'fair fight'," wrote Mohit Bhan, a PDP spokesperson and a Pandit.