Late Journalist Hiten Mahanta Remembered

GUWAHATI, Aug 29: A commemorative meet was held at Guwahati Press Club on Wednesday evening to mark the third death anniversary of Hiten Mahanta, late journalist, columnist and former vice president of Journalists Forum, Assam (JFA).

Presiding over the meet, JFA president Rupam Baruah recalled his long association with Mahanta and spoke of the three qualities that characterized him as a true journalist, namely courage, integrity and humane outlook.

Ranen Kumar Goswami spoke of how Mahanta stuck to his ideals unflinchingly, particularly during the bloody nineties when scribes used to be shot dead by extremists for fearless reporting.

Biman Chandra Hazarika, Rajib Baruah, Raman Bora, Jagadindra Raychaudhury, Khagen Medhi, Bipul Sarma, Dipankar Debasarma, Dipen Bayan and other journalists shed light on various aspects of Mahanta’s personality and work which so raised him in the esteem of colleagues and fellow scribes. Late Mahanta’s wife Manashri Dutta Mahanta, brother Sailen Mahanta, sister Nilima Adhikary and other relatives remembered Mahanta as a loving and principled family man with an abiding social commitment till the end.