Asom Bani, once a mainstream weekly for Assamese readers, stopped hitting the stands since September last year, as the management lost interest in continuing to print the publication, which used to come out every Friday. Amid existential crisis for the Assam Tribune group of newspapers, which worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic, the seven-decade old Guwahati-based Assamese-language weekly silently disappeared from the newsstands.
Prior to its final departure, the popular periodical was merged as a weekly supplement with Dainik Asom, an acclaimed Assamese daily from the same prestigious media house in north-eastern India. Thus Asom Bani regretfully gets added to the list of all the closed publications, which over the years had emerged to enrich the newspaper culture history of Assam, beginning with Arunodoi in 1846. Once edited by prominent Assamese journalist-authors, namely Satish Chandra Kakati, Tilak Hazarika, Phani Talukdar, Nirod Chowdhury, Homen Bargohain and Chandraprasad Shaikia, the weekly had Dilip Chandan as its last editor, who served Asom Bani for nearly three decades.
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Launched on 1 July 1955 by legendary Assamese entrepreneur Radha Govinda Baruah, the weekly witnessed and reported various important socio-political developments including the Assamese medium of instruction movement, Assam anti-influx agitation, separatist-influenced insurgency, social unrest, regional politics and other topical events and issues with all sincerity to the indigenous population. As the pandemic severely affected the circulation of all newspapers published by the Assam Tribune group, the subsequent impact was observed in the shrinking of advertisement revenues from commercial entities. Like many other media institutions across India, the Assam Tribune group also faced a severe financial crisis that started reflecting in irregular salary disbursements to the employees, including the working journalists.
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The employees’ union came to the public with various difficulties, especially the unpaid dues meant for retired employees. The union leaders also made allegations that their group was not receiving the appropriate payments from the State information & public relations directorate (against the published advertisements), both in terms of rates and pending dues. Soon rumours spread over the probable sale of the entire media group to another city-based television house. The Tribune management initially denied these, terming them false and motivated interpretations. In an official statement, the management assured its firm commitment to its ‘editorial independence, journalistic integrity, and continued services to its readers, advertisers, and stakeholders’.
The management even urged all concerned to “disregard such baseless speculation and refrain from spreading misinformation”. Needless to mention that its primary publication The Assam Tribune, which came to light on 4 August, 1939, continues to be the highest-circulated English daily in the region. But assurances of the management led by Prafulla Govinda Baruah (who passed away recently on 14 December) did not prevent it from handing over the responsibility of Dainik Asom, by now a six-decade old publication, to a different media group owned by young entrepreneur Kishor Borah that runs an Assamese satellite news channel ND24. The deal was made public on 17 September last year, following which a new management took the responsibility of publishing Dainik Asom.
But Asom Bani, however, was not adopted (it had already ceased to be an independent publication). As a supplement of Dainik Asom, the weekly was published on 12 September, 2025 for the last time. The new management of Dainik Asom did not pick up all the engaged media employees and, on a single day, over 70 employees (many of them were enjoying extended tenures with monthly payments) lost their jobs.
The Assam Tribune management assured them payment of all legal dues within a few weeks, but that did not materialise. Having no options left, the employees approached the labour court, demanding their dues. It’s unfortunate that the media house, which was India’s first media group to implement the recommendations of the statutory Majithia Wage Board in 2012, now takes the route of escapists (avoiding the legal payments to the retired employees).
THE WRITER IS A GUWAHATI-BASED SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STATESMAN
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