Months after FIR, govt official handles say “Yes Sir” to India's Got Latent

New Delhi: When comedian Samay Raina's India's Got Latent became the centre of a nationwide controversy earlier this year, Assam was among only two states to initiate criminal proceedings over the show; Maharashtra being the other. Months later, an official government handle from the same state, alongside @mygovindia, the Government of India's citizen engagement platform, has joined one of the recent viral trends from the second season of India’s Got Latent. View this post on Instagram The account @mygovassamese, which communicates government initiatives in Assamese, recently published a post using creator Geni Kamki's now-viral “Yes Sir” exchange from the show. View this post on Instagram The trend has also found its way to @irctcofficial, the official Instagram account of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Railways, Government of India. View this post on Instagram The development presents an unusual juxtaposition. While one arm of the state had previously treated India's Got Latent as serious enough to warrant criminal proceedings over alleged obscenity, another is now drawing on one of the show's popular cultural moments to engage audiences on social media. The moment Geni Kamki, better known by her Instagram handle @luciidforyou, is a digital creator from Arunachal Pradesh whose content largely revolves around humour, lifestyle and short-form entertainment. Her appearance on the latest season of India's Got Latent significantly catapulted her reach. View this post on Instagram During her interaction with the judges, Kamki repeatedly responded with “Yes Sir” in myriad cheerful ways. The moment quickly escaped the episode and became a viral format. The clip has since been widely repurposed by creators, including government accounts. View this post on Instagram View this post on Instagram View this post on Instagram View this post on Instagram Interestingly, the trend has also created an unexpected brand beneficiary. Kamki's T-shirt, emblazoned with the Qualcomm-owned Snapdragon logo during her appearance on the show, has remained in frame across countless reposts of the viral clip, handing the chipset brand repeated earned visibility. Whether that exposure was purely incidental or stemmed from a commercial association remains unclear. Like brands and creators, government departments and public sector organisations have increasingly adopted internet trends to improve the reach of their social media communication. For Assam, however, the irony is difficult to miss. The irony Earlier this year, India's Got Latent came under intense scrutiny following remarks made by guest panellist Ranveer Allahbadia during an episode of the show. Among the states that formally acted were Maharashtra and Assam. In Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma publicly announced that the Guwahati Police had registered an FIR against Samay Raina and several YouTubers and influencers associated with the programme, alleging that the show promoted obscenity. It resulted in India's Got Latent being pulled from public view for a brief period, followed by Samay Raina removing it from his YouTube channel. Against that backdrop, Kamki's “Yes Sir” moment shows how easily internet culture can move beyond the controversies and find new life across the netizen nation, brands, public sector enterprises and even official government communication channels.