Gogoi ‘message’ leads to reshuffle in his PR set-up

A ‘‘Message’’ issued by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in the souvenir of a function organised by a former ULFA milita...

A ‘‘Message’’ issued by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in the souvenir of a function organised by a former ULFA militant has not only created ripples here, but has also led to the overhauling of the CMO’s public relations set-up.

The controversy began when two senior ministers attended a function at Sepon in Sivasagar district earlier this month. The chief organiser was one Mridul Phukan, a former ULFA militant who figures in police cases in connection with several murders.

While the CMO wanted to know why the ministers had attended the function, the ministers reportedly pointed out that there was nothing wrong as the souvenir had carried a ‘‘message’’ from the CM.

This led to immediate reactions in Dispur with the CMO transferring the four Information and Public Relations officials back to their parent department, the Directorate of Information and Public Relations. Their mistake was that they had failed to verify the antecedents of the applicant seeking a ‘‘message’’ of the CM.

However, while action was being initiated against these four, Bhagaban Lahkar, press advisor to Gogoi was completely in the dark. Lahkar, a veteran educationist and Congress think-tank member holds the rank of a Cabinet Minister.

Lahkar has met Gogoi and pointed out that it was ‘‘big mistake’’ the CMO had committed. Gogoi, however, has refused to withdraw the transfer orders.

Meanwhile, OSD to the CM, Debajit Das, has said that request for ‘‘message’’ from Gogoi would be issued after a report is received from the police about the antecedents of those making the request.