Shyamkanu Mahanta: Disparity Between Former Governor’s Statement And RTI Reply

Guwahati: The Assam Governor’s address to the 2024–25 Budget Session of the Legislative Assembly has unexpectedly opened a fault line within the state’s administrative machinery, exposing contradictions so stark that they raise fundamental questions about truth, process, and power. What was meant to be a routine constitutional speech has now become a document under suspicion, after an RTI reply flatly contradicted what the Governor told the House in black and white.

The controversy centres on Trend MMS, a company owned by Shyamkanu Mahanta, and its alleged collaboration with the Assam government’s Act East Policy Affairs Department in organising the third edition of the Northeast India Festival, held in Vietnam between October 27 and 29, 2023. 

What the Governor’s Speech Said

A written copy of Governor Gulab Chand Kataria’s budget speech, accessed by DY365, clearly states that the Act East Policy Affairs Department collaborated with Trend MMS as a “powered-by partner” for the international event. The wording leaves little room for ambiguity. In the language of governance, “collaboration” implies institutional consent, documentation, and procedural legitimacy.

This claim was not an isolated mention. The same assertion found its way into a Standing Committee report placed before the Assam Assembly, which again referred to a partnership between the Act East Policy Department and Trend MMS, stating that the festival was organised on the basis of mutual understanding. In official terms, such “mutual understanding” is not a casual phrase; it usually rests on written communication, agreements, or memoranda of understanding, particularly when a government department associates itself with a private entity on a foreign platform.

RTI Reveals a Completely Different Picture

It was precisely to trace this paper trail that RTI activist Okram Prasanta Singha sought information from the Act East Policy Affairs Department. The response he received has now shaken the credibility of the earlier claims. The department, in its official reply, categorically denied the existence of any agreement, MoU, or collaboration with Trend MMS. It further stated that no funds were released for the Northeast India Festival, no financial assistance was provided for business delegations linked to Trend MMS, and no expenditure was incurred for global business meetings or related events. More disturbingly, the department claimed it had no records at all of any such partnership.

This outright denial places the Governor’s speech and the Standing Committee report in direct conflict with the department they themselves refer to. If the RTI reply is accurate, then the Governor of Assam was made to deliver a statement in the Assembly that had no factual backing from the concerned department. A constitutional head of the state was, in effect, handed a speech containing claims that the bureaucracy now refuses to own. Such a lapse is not a minor clerical error; it strikes at the sanctity of legislative proceedings and the credibility of official communication.

Addressing the media, Okram Prasanta Singha did not mince words. He stated that if the Act East Policy Department has no documents, no agreements, and no records, then the Governor’s speech and the Standing Committee report were prepared without cross-verification. This, he said, points either to gross administrative negligence or deliberate misinformation. In both cases, accountability cannot be avoided. A Governor’s address is not a press release; it is a constitutional statement made to the elected representatives of the people.

The unanswered question now looming large is simple yet explosive: who inserted Trend MMS into the Governor’s speech? Was it the Act East Policy Department, which now disowns the collaboration, or was it another arm of the administration that projected a private company as a government partner without following due process? If no documentation exists, then on what basis was Trend MMS presented as an official collaborator in an international festival?

The matter acquires a sharper political edge given Shyamkanu Mahanta’s perceived proximity to the government establishment. The absence of formal agreements, if true, suggests an informal or undocumented arrangement—something that governance rules explicitly frown upon. In 2025, ministers of the Assam government and even Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma publicly asserted that no funds or official collaboration were undertaken with Trend MMS for the Northeast India Festival. Those statements now collide head-on with the claims made in the Governor’s 2024 speech and Assembly records.

This contradiction leaves Assam staring at two deeply troubling possibilities. Either the Assembly and the Governor were misled to legitimise a private entity through official endorsement, or a government department is now attempting to erase traces of a collaboration that never followed institutional protocol. Both scenarios point to a breakdown of transparency, and neither can be dismissed as a technical oversight.

At a time when public trust in institutions is fragile, such discrepancies erode the moral authority of governance. A Governor’s speech cannot be fiction, and an RTI reply cannot be selective truth. Somewhere between these two documents lies a deliberate act—or a dangerous indifference to procedure. Until those responsible for drafting, vetting, and approving the Governor’s speech are identified and questioned, the cloud over Assam’s Act East Policy claims will only grow darker.

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