5 min readGuwahatiSep 15, 2023 12:38 PM IST
First published on: Sep 14, 2023 at 05:43 PM IST
The controversy over allegations that a company run by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife received a Rs 10 crore grant from the Central government snowballed on Thursday, with the state Assembly being adjourned twice over the issue, and Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan threating Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi with a defamation suit for the same amount.
While records from Parliament shared by Gogoi, as well as the ministry website, show that grant-in-aid of Rs 10 crore under a Central scheme was approved for Riniki’s company to set up a food processing unit in Assam, she said her firm had not claimed the subsidy or received any money.
However, Gogoi, who has accused the CM of using his influence to help his wife’s company, questioned why the grant had been approved in the first place.
Rinika is Chairman and Managing Director of Pride East Entertainments Private Limited, one of the largest media companies in the Northeast, which owns two news channels, a newspaper, a digital news portal and multiple entertainment channels.
Gogoi had highlighted that the company was among the 70 ‘project execution agencies’ cleared for setting up agro processing cluster projects under the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industry’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana.
Riniki was listed as the lead promoter of the project to set up such a project at Darigazi village in Assam’s Nagaon district, one of seven under the scheme in the state. For this project, estimated to cost Rs 25 crore, a grant of Rs 10 crore – the maximum amount available under the scheme – was approved on November 10, 2022, records show.
Thursday was the fourth day of the ongoing Session of the Assam Assembly, and following Question Hour, Opposition MLAs raised a notice for adjournment motion to discuss the issue.
Speaker Biswajit Daimary did not accept the notice, stating that it had been found to be not “in order”. He added: “… It is a personal case, not a matter for which we should adjourn the House.”
However, the Opposition MLAs continued to press for an adjournment motion, leading to disruption of the House proceedings.
Meanwhile, Gogoi and Sarma carried on their spar on social media. Sarma repeated on X that neither his wife nor her company had received any subsidy from the Centre, while Gogoi shared a reply by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on March 22 this year to a Lok Sabha question on initiatives taken by the ministry to support industries in Assam, which named Riniki’s firm Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd.
Among the initiatives listed in the reply were credit-linked capital subsidies provided by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries for establishment or upgrade of food processing units, with preferential provision for the Northeast. Among the approved projects under this scheme was Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd’s. The reply stated that a grant-in-aid of Rs 10 crore was approved for the company, and that the status of the project as of December 31, 2022, was “under implementation”.
Gogoi appealed to the Centre to take up the issue. “I request @PMOIndia to order an enquiry into how the Commerce Ministry approved a Rs 10 crore grant for a BJP Chief Minister’s family,” he posted on X.
In a statement, Riniki said the company “has neither claimed nor received a single paisa of government subsidy, despite meeting all the eligibility criteria”. “This is nothing but an attack to malign and defame a 17-year old Assamese enterprise, which has adhered to every aspect of the law, headed by a woman entrepreneur. To protect the reputation of our hardworking employees from this slanderous campaign of Sri Gaurav Gogoi… I am thereby constrained to file a case of defamation with 10 crore in damages against him,” she stated.
On Thursday, The Indian Express visited the site of the food processing unit being set up by Pride East Entertainments, spread over around 50 bighas. Records show the land was acquired by the firm last year from various villagers.
Earlier used for growing paddy, the land is lying fallow since it changed hands. Villagers said work on the site had not begun.
One of those who sold their land to the company said: “It’s not very productive to grow paddy here. The crop gets inundated by floods a couple of times each year, and when the crop does grow successfully, it is likely to be destroyed by elephants. So I was happy to sell the land.”
Rinika is Chairman and Managing Director of Pride East Entertainments Private Limited, one of the largest media companies in the Northeast, which owns two news channels, a newspaper, a digital news portal and multiple entertainment channels. (Facebook/Riniki Bhuyan Sharma) 
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