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.