Assam CMO Says Expenses For Party Work Are 'Paid for by the Political Party', but RTI Details Don’t Bear That Out
Guwahati/New Delhi: As a response to the report by The Wire and the The CrossCurrent on a right to information (RTI) reply by the Assam government, which illustrates how the state's chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma may have used public money to attend the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s meetings and some social engagements besides campaigning for a party ally in an election, the Assam chief minister’s office (CMO) termed it a “mischievous, misleading and lazy hit job based on selective reading of handful of tweets”.
But a close scrutiny of the bills obtained through the RTI and the model code of conduct forbidding combining elections with official work do not bear this out.
In his response, the CMO has said, “No expenditure of HCM Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma election campaigns are borne by the State exchequer. All expenses, including flights, are paid for by the political party via bank transfer/cheque.”
The CMO claims that whenever he “visits any district in the State or neighbouring States for official engagements, there could be social functions such as condolence meetings or weddings that coincide with the visit.”
The CMO asserts that “compared to all official visits undertaken by HCM since May 2021, such coincidences are far and few.”
1. Though the CMO claims that “all expenses, including flights, are paid for by the political party [the BJP] via bank transfer/cheque”, it couldn’t offer the details of such ‘cheque’ or ‘bank transfers’ pertaining to those dates.
Importantly, the RTI replies nowhere stated that any payment or even a part of it was to be borne by Sarma’s party, the BJP.
For instance, the Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC), through which an order to charter a special flight is placed by the state government, had placed a bill of Rs 1,26,56,267 spent on the chief minister’s special flights to the general administration department on December 24, 2023.
The bill, numbered 1/32, was for his travel between October 1 and 19, 2023. The name of the service provider was Dhillon Aviation Private Limited.
As per the bill attached with the RTI replies, the chief minister flew to Tamulpur on October 17, 2023 and to Gossaigaon on October 18-19, 2023.
On October 17, the chief minister took part in the election campaign for a candidate of the BJP’s ally, the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) in Tamulpur for the assembly by-election. On October 19, he campaigned for another UPPL candidate contesting from Gossaigaon.
No evidence was cited by the state government in the RTI replies about Sarma’s party bearing the cost of his air travel on those dates.
Another instance was the submission of a bill on April 2, 2022 by the ATDC to the general administration department for a sum of Rs 1,40,92,109.
As per that bill, numbered 1/58, the amount was for the chief minister’s air travel by chartered flights between February 3, 2022 and February 28, 2022.
The bill showed that Sarma flew to Majuli on February 16, 2022, where he participated in the nomination paper-submission of the BJP’s candidate, Bhuban Gam, who was contesting the by-election for the state assembly held after the seat fell vacant once former chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal resigned.
Again, no evidence (of a cheque or by bank transfer) of the party picking up the tab was evident from the bill submitted by one government depart to the other to clear payments to the service provider.
As per the Election Commission of India’s code of conduct, the chief minister cannot mix election work with official work.
Section VII 1(a) of the Model Code of Conduct reads: “The Ministers shall not combine their official visit with electioneering work and shall not also make use of official machinery or personnel during the electioneering work.”
As per another bill submitted by the ATDC on February 18, 2023 (bill no:1/117), a special flight for the chief minister from Mumbai to Delhi was hired on November 20, 2022, then from Delhi to Guwahati the next day and then from Guwahati to Delhi on November 22, 2022.
It had cost the state exchequer Rs 45,48,450.
On November 20, 2022, the day the chief minister travelled from Mumbai to Delhi, he was seen taking part in the BJP’s campaign for the Delhi municipal polls. The service provider for the entire three-day trip was Air King Chartered Private Limited.
On March 1, 2023, as per bill no. 1/141 of the ATDC, the chief minister flew from Agartala to Dibrugarh on January 30, 2023 and from there to Lucknow and back to Guwahati the next day. It had cost the government Rs 40,53,580.
On January 30, he was present with Tripura chief minister Manik Saha while he filed his nomination papers for the assembly elections for that state.
These bills were submitted by the ATDC to the general administration department for clearance of payment. There is no evidence of Sarma’s party paying for such non-official work instead.
2. There could well be social functions like condolence meetings and weddings ‘coinciding’ with the official visit of the chief minister to a district, as claimed by the CMO.
However, unlike in a road journey, where the state typically needs to spend much less public money (in fuel, etc.) if the dignitary takes a detour from the official route, with flights and helicopters, the amount from extra time spent jumps up to the lakhs as it is billed on an hourly basis, as highlighted in our news report.
What needs highlighting here is also this: as per a bill (no. 1/119) submitted by the ATDC on February 17, 2023, the chief minister flew by a special flight from Guwahati to Dimapur and back on November 11, 2022 at a cost of Rs 14,08,562.
Sarma’s itinerary, seen in the RTI reply, showed that he went by road to the Guwahati airport on November 11, 2022 at 9 am.
At 10 am, he flew from Guwahati and landed in Dimapur at 10:35 am.
At 10:40 am, he went by road straight to Rio Villa at Suvima village.
At 10:50 am., he attended Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio’s daughter’s wedding.
At 11:50 am, he returned to the Dimapur airport by road and flew back to Guwahati at 12:10 pm.
Upon arrival at the Guwahati airport at 1 pm, he travelled by road to his official residence.
Sarma’s detailed itinerary didn’t mention any official work.
3. Since the CMO said such ‘coincidences’ (of official work and social engagements) were “far and few” from May 2021, when Sarma became Assam chief minister, it is not clear if his office meant to say that while those ‘coincidences’ may have come down in Sarma’s tenure as compared to that of his predecessor, Sarbananda Sonowal, they do exist.
It is noteworthy that while the Sarma government had claimed in the assembly last September that a sum of Rs 34,13,42,303 was spent from public funds to charter flights for Assam’s top dignitaries, including the chief minister, in the financial year 2022-23, the RTI replies received from the administration by The CrossCurrent, however, showed only Rs 19,74,62,657 for that financial year.
There is a discrepancy of Rs 14,38,79,644 between the two numbers. If the entire information is made public by the state government, more use of funds by the state government to charter special flights for the chief minister’s non-governmental work may be revealed.
Even the partial replies received through the RTI were denied to The CrossCurrent for nearly a year; ultimately, incomplete replies were shared after the state information commission instructed the government to do so in August 2023.
4. The news report has been published based on the RTI replies of the Sarma government. In the report, any official engagements that the chief minister took part in on dates mentioned in the RTI replies, along with the details of his engaging in party work or attending weddings, have been mentioned.
The news report has also relied on the chief minister’s own social media handles to verify facts.
The RTI replies of the Assam government can be perused here:
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