As Assam goes through harrowing floods and their aftermath, different stories emerge. Stories of journalists breaking down while reporting the ravage. A drowning man trying to save a cow rather than his own life. Young people waiting patiently for food donations. Students trying to save and dry their books and stationery even as lives are being lost. Villages reduced to mud, with a buried shoe, a buried comb, a buried skeleton as witnesses. People travelling from far and wide to offer help. Donations pouring in. Humanity showing up with great intensity.The Assam floods of July 2026 are unlike any the state has seen. They have brought unimaginable destruction and, along with it, extraordinary kindness and brotherhood in an age when digital lives have made it easier to remain passive, to watch from a distance rather than step out and act.But in the middle of all this, some wise Assamese have discovered another emotion: shame. Meghranjani Medhi, a dancer and actor from the state, took to busking on the streets of London to raise funds for flood-affected people back home. Little did she imagine that people would turn on her for it, accusing her of bringing shame to Assam by “begging” and maligning the state abroad. Others argued that she could have done it ‘better’ – that there were, apparently, more respectable ways of raising money than performing on a street.Assamese actress and Kathak dancer Meghranjani Medhi raised funds for Assam flood victims by singing on streets of London. So inspiring to see whole of Assam unite in these tough times ❤️ https://t.co/w00qn3SZyW pic.twitter.com/YAuoz3JwVr— Alpakanya (@Alpakanya) August 6, 2026The chief minister, expectedly, joined the bandwagon, the ground already laid by critics whose subnational pride had been hurt. Himanta Biswa Sarma said that he himself finds it difficult even to ask Delhi for funds, and that there was no need to seek flood relief in London or the United States.This, from the chief minister of a state whose outstanding debt stood at about rupees 1.62 lakh crore as of March 31, 2025, according to figures placed before the Assam Assembly by the finance minister. And, somewhat ironically, a chief minister whose own 2026 election affidavit still lists a Rs 2 lakh loan from his friend Devajit Saikia – the same amount that appeared in his 2016 and 2021 affidavits.Shame, like outrage, does not fall evenly, however. On July 31, ministers Pijush Hazarika and Susanta Borgohain took part in a ceremonial seed-sowing programme at Demow in Sivasagar, meant to establish a community paddy nursery for flood-affected farmers. No one expects ministers to know exactly how to broadcast paddy seed with a farmer’s practised hand. That is not the point. The problem was the spectacle in the widely circulated visuals: the ministers scattering seed as cameras crowded around them, agricultural labour turned into a camera-ready performance at a time when floods had destroyed fields and livelihoods.Shame, if it had to be demanded, could have been demanded here. At the very least, the ministers’ actions deserved scrutiny, and questions of judgement and accountability. Yet the self-appointed guardians of Assamese pride, so wounded by an artiste performing on a London street to raise money for flood relief, seemed far less troubled by ministers turning farm work into political theatre.Nor, apparently, does a political promise of considerably greater consequence attract the same embarrassment. In March 2021, while campaigning for the BJP in Assam, Union home minister Amit Shah asked for another five years and promised that Assam would become “free of floods”. At a rally in Nazira, he went so far as to say that there would never be another flood in the state. Five years later, Assam is living through this.But an artiste performing on a London street to collect money for flood victims – that is what embarrasses us. So where, exactly, are our priorities as a people, as citizens and as human beings, ha?Jyotirmoy Talukdar is the English Language Adviser to the Dean of Academic Affairs, Ashoka University.