On January 18, as the Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra passed through Assam, Rahul Gandhi addressed a public gathering in Jorhat.
“The chief minister of Assam is the most corrupt CM in India,” he said about Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. “He can teach other BJP CMs to commit corruption.” Nettled, Sarma hit back that the Gandhis were the “most corrupt family in India”.
The next day, the front page of Niyamiya Barta, a leading Assamese daily, bubbled with sensationalistic fervour. “Gandhi family is the most corrupt family in the country,” its headlined declared, the report detailing every single thing Sarma had said, including that the Congress party had “bombed” Aizawl.
The front page also claimed Gandhi’s yatra “caused chaos”, that it was actually a “miya yatra”, and that “justice” must be sought for Ankita Dutta, a former Congress leader who was expelled last year for “anti-party” activities.
Yet while Niyamiya Barta meticulously chronicled Sarma’s fiery retorts and issues plaguing the yatra, conspicuous by its absence was Gandhi’s initial allegations of corruption against the chief minister. It also skipped anything about the yatra that wasn’t critical or condemnatory.
But to those familiar with Assam’s media scene, the newspaper’s tendencies towards selective reporting – dubbed “omission and promotion” by those in the know – isn’t surprising, given its affiliations with a media conglomerate owned by the CM’s family.
That conglomerate is Pride East Entertainment Private Ltd, first established as a satellite news channel in 2008. Its chairman is Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, and the company now boasts at least two news channels, three entertainment channels, one news portal, several magazines, and newspaper Niyamiya Barta.
And Pride East is at the top of the media game in Assam. Its Assamese-language news channel, News Live, is the state’s most-watched satellite channel, according to data from BARC. Last May, Pride East acquired Time 8, a regional news portal.
So, is a media empire propping Sarma up? How deeply is he connected to the company?
Newslaundry sent questionnaires to Pride East and the CM’s office This report will be updated if they respond. We also repeatedly contacted Riniki Bhuyan Sarma through her personal assistant but did not get an appointment to meet her.
Intertwined journeys of Sarma and News Live
News Live launched in 2008 when Sarma was a Congress leader who was considered a close confidante of then CM Tarun Gogoi, holding several important portfolios in the state cabinet. At the time, the top news channel in Assam was Northeast TV, or NE TV, owned by former Congress leader Matang Sinh. It was the only satellite channel in the region.
But then News Live came along as NE TV’s first competitor. It was widely considered to take a pro-Congress stance in Assam. Atanu Bhuyan, a director at Pride East who is close to the Sarma family, was installed as its editor-in-chief with the task of establishing a “professional news channel” in Assam.
“NE TV was very chaotic, with news bulletins in different languages,” said Bhuyan, who helmed News Live until 2012 when he left. “A team from Delhi came to train us. All the staff underwent rigorous training for three months.”
According to Bhuyan, News Live pioneered “new trends” in the media industry in Assam by telecasting “new concepts”, like a “pre-recorded celebration of Uruka in Magh Bihu” and a “beauty contest during Saraswati Puja”. But what really got them eyeballs was their 24x7 coverage of the funeral of Bhupen Hazarika, a singer and lyricist who died in 2011.
“After his death, his body was kept in George Field in Guwahati. We did 24x7 coverage of his death. At that time, our TRPs shot to 600+ which was highest even at the national level,” Bhuyan said proudly.
But what about the channel’s coverage of politics?
By 2012, CM Gogoi and Sarma were bitter rivals. Sarma was alleged to have held a “secret meeting” with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi – a rumour that infuriated Gogoi. In the midst of this animosity came a crucial development that involved News Live itself.
In July that year, a 20-year-old woman was stripped and molested by a group of men outside a pub in Guwahati. Video footage suggested that a News Live journalist had instigated the mob to molest her. The story made national headlines on two fronts – for News Live’s lack of ethics and for CM Gogoi’s inability to protect women in his state.
Gogoi’s response was to corner News Live – seen as being supportive of Sarma in general – over the “poor standard” of its journalism. The journalist, Gaurav Jyoti, was arrested. Editor-in-chief Bhuyan resigned, allegedly at Sarma’s behest. News Live insiders told Newslaundry that Sarma did not want to give Gogoi an opportunity to attack him further over the case.
A year later, Digivjaya Singh, the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee, reportedly sent Sarma a letter seeking an explanation on the role played by News Live in “whipping up a campaign against Gogoi”. Sarma left the Congress in 2015.
Bhuyan admitted that the channel’s coverage in “support of Sarma” had “irked” Gogoi. But he, like Kalita, insisted that the channel was and is “independent” of Sarma’s influence – mainly because they knew how to deliver what Sarma wanted.
“Himanta Sarma never instructs anyone to pursue a particular story. At least that was the case during my tenure as editor-in-chief,” he said. “In fact, our understanding was such that he rarely needed to intervene as I had a clear grasp of his preferences. Sarma is, in fact, the best editor-in-chief. He has the best news sense. He knows what to say at what point and what will resonate most with the media.”
This is an unarguable fact. This reporter has previously written about Sarma’s journey as a “loudmouth leader”.
A former employee who had worked with News Live when it launched told Newslaundry that during an anniversary celebration, former CM Gogoi once announced that the channel is “not a normal baby, it is a caesarean baby” – perhaps hinting at the government’s role in helping the channel get its broadcast licence.
Newslaundry learned that Sarma was quite involved in the initial years of News Live. Two former employees confirmed that he would visit the office at night while staffers were undergoing training sessions. They also claimed that during the time Sarma resigned from the Gogoi cabinet, he would allegedly visit the office then too.
Whose share is this anyway?
In 2008, soon after News Live launched, the Akhil Gogoi-led Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti alleged Pride East was guilty of “corporate fraud”, claiming its investments stemmed from “shell companies” and individuals connected to surrendered members of the United Liberation Front of Asom, or SULFA.
Fifteen years later, The Wire and The Crosscurrent investigated a group of companies in Kolkata that invested in another company where Riniki served as director. Some of these companies had also previously invested in Pride East. However, the media houses were unable to verify that these companies even existed.
Newslaundry investigated company filings and directors’ data with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to find out more.
Registered in Shillong in Meghalaya, Pride East was incorporated in November 2006 with four directors on its board: Bhaskar Sharma, Rajib Bhuyan, Ghyanshyam Talukdar and Atanu Bhuyan. At this point, Riniki was not involved at all in Pride East, not even as a shareholder.
There’s no clarity on what the company did from its date of incorporation until News Live’s launch in January 2008. But during this period, corporate filings show thousands of shares were allotted to individuals and companies, including the four directors, Sonali Mishra, Pratibha Talukdar, Prashanta Choudhury, Pradip Talukdar, Sachindra Chandra Bhuyan, Madan Mohan Sarma, and Gagana Choudhury.
The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti alleged that three of them – Prashanta Choudhury, Rajib Bhuyan and Sachindra Chandra Bhuyan – served as directors in companies along with a man named Birendra Choudhury, known to be a business associate of Sarma. The Samiti also alleged Rajib is the son of Sachindra Chandra Bhuyan, and both are Sarma’s business partners and that Prashanta Choudhury and Gagana Choudhury are relatives of Birendra Choudhury, while Sonali Mishra is wife of a surrendered militant named Rubul Mishra.
These details were included in a press release issued by the Samiti in 2008, a copy of which is available with Newslaundry. The same details also found their way into a book published by the Samiti.
While individual shareholders held a fragment of shares at Pride East, the majority of shares were allotted to 22 companies – 21 in Kolkata and one in Chennai – between 2007 and 2009.
The Chennai company, BKT Finance Private Ltd, holds nearly 44 percent of shares in Pride East. Bhaskar Sarma, who was director of Pride East when it was founded, was also a director of BKT at the time, as was Pride East shareholder Ranjit Bhattacharya.
As for the 21 Kolkata companies, they are part of a web of interconnected relationships. At least 11 companies have the same individuals as directors or past directors.
Several companies shared the same registered address. For example, six companies were registered at 6 Hanspukur Lane in Kolkata while four companies were registered at 2 Digambar Jain Temple Road. Two others were registered at 21 Hemanta Basu Sarani, two at 205 Rabindra Sarani, and two at 71 Canning Street. One company named Echolac Vinimay Private Ltd was listed with two addresses – Hasanpur Lane and Digambar Jain Temple Road – and both these addresses are shared by 11 other companies.
From 2008 onward, Riniki and other members of the Sarma family were allotted shares in Pride East. The 21 Kolkata companies that had invested in Pride East also began transferring shares at the same allotted price to Sarma’s relatives.
The family members holding shares included Riniki, her maternal uncle Guna Tamuli Phukan, Sarma’s mother Mrinalini Devi, and Sarma’s personal secretary Ranjit Bhattacharya. By 2009, all 21 Kolkata companies had transferred their shares to individual shareholders including Riniki, Mrinalini Devi, Sarma’s father Kailash Nath Sarma, and Guna Tamuli Phukan. Riniki now held 16.15 percent of shares in Pride East.
By 2016, her uncle Guna Tamuli Phukan transferred all his shares to Riniki, so her shareholding in Pride East increased to 34 percent.
In 2017, non-promoter shares held by individuals other than Sarma’s family and friends were transferred to two entities – KS Vanijya Private Ltd and Moolchand Finance Private Ltd – at Rs 129 per share. The directors of both companies are Sarma’s business associate Birendra Choudhury and his wife Kumarika Choudhury
In 2018, KS Vanijya and Moolchand Finance transferred 35 percent percent of these transferred shares to Riniki. As of 2022, both companies own no shares at all in Pride East. Sarma’s son and daughter each hold 1.39 lakh shares.
So, what does this mean? As of 2022, the Sarmas and their ilk hold control – over 75 percent – over Pride East. As a result, News Live is often caught in the crosshairs along with Sarma.
In August 2014, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power at the centre, the CBI raided Sarma’s home and the News Live office in Guwahati. At the time, Sarma was still with the Congress, albeit labelled a dissident. He was accused of taking money – “not less than Rs 3 crore over the last one-and-a-half-years” – from the Saradha Group to air advertisements on News Live. Riniki was questioned by the CBI in connection with the same case in 2015.
Front-page fawning
Niyamiya Barta is considered one of the top three regional dailies in the state. Assam has 35 districts and Assamese papers circulate in 28 of them, since Bengali is dominant in the other seven. The newspaper’s editor Naresh Kalita told Newslaundry that Niyamiya Barta is the “highest circulated newspaper” in 17 of these 28 districts.
In India, it’s not unusual for political parties to own media empires, as seen in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. While Sarma has never officially spoken about his connections to Pride East, he reaps its political advantages. With rare exceptions, Niyamiya Barta consistently carries at least one photograph of Sarma on its front page every single day. It also consistently praises and promotes Sarma.
Take January 22, the day of the Ram Mandir’s consecration ceremony in Ayodhya. The newspaper’s front page featured two photos of Sarma – a three-column picture of him ‘virtually’ attending the event and another two-column photo of him holding a child dressed as Lord Ram. Even photos of Prime Minister Modi at the ceremony itself played second fiddle to Sarma, relegated to corners.
Sarma’s photographs dominate even in times of tragedy. On January 3, 12 people, on their way for a picnic, were killed in a road accident in Golaghat. The news made it to page 1 of Niyamiya Barta, but the story deferred to other news items that the newspaper clearly deemed more important: the launch of a book on how “Team Himanta beat the pandemic”.
Editor Kalita insisted that Niyamiya Barta presents “news” not “views”.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma is a politician and has nothing to do with the media organisation,” he told Newslaundry. “But yes, some people may interpret his wife’s role in the organisation and we cannot stop it. However, there is benefit from both those who spread such misinformation and those who side with us.” It’s unclear what this “benefit” is.
Kalita also said Riniki Bhuyan Sarma works in management and doesn’t dabble in editorial decisions, and that Pride East’s channels, newspaper and website “have been given the editorial independence to pursue stories that matter”.
This was reiterated by Riniki in December 2023 in an interview with India Today Northeast, where she insisted the channel shows “news” not “views”.
“He is the chief minister. If he has done a good thing, it will obviously come on the front page. I cannot convert a good thing into bad. Photographs will obviously come as he is the chief minister,” she said. “If he has done something good, we portray and if he has done nothing we are silent. We have never done any forced portrayal, nor does he force it.”
But, as Kishalay Bhattacharjee, a journalist and dean of the Jindal School of Journalism and Communications, pointed out, “media has always been an influencer”.
“When the government’s grip over media loosened and privatisation happened, many politicians took advantage of it, knowing that television is a far more effective and immediate medium for propaganda,” he told Newslaundry. “But to get a licence for a satellite channel is not easy, as one needs several clearances. When News Live was launched, Himanta was a cabinet minister and the UPA was in power so that may have helped. As a politician, it is only obvious he will use it for propaganda. It would be interesting to study how his channel reported the BJP when he was in UPA and how it reports today when he jumped ship in 2015.”
It’s easy to guess how the channel might have changed tactics in accordance with Sarma’s journey from the Congress to the BJP. But with the Lok Sabha polls around the corner, perhaps it’s leaving no stone unturned to aid and abet him – if the front pages of Niyamiya Barta last month are anything to go by.
This article was first published on March 5, 2024.
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