In Remembrance of Mr. H. N. Das

By Jayanta Kakati

It was with great sadness that I received the news of the passing of Mr. Harendra Nath Das on the evening of 24th May 2024.

I had the good fortune to work directly under him for more than 10 years when he was the Chairman of the Guwahati Tea Auction Committee from 1986 to 1996. It was with great trepidation that I, as Secretary of GTAC, took my first steps to work under someone from the Government—especially a senior IAS officer who was then the Commissioner of the Planning & Development Department, with his office in one decrepit end of the then temporary capital complex in Dispur. To reach his office, one had to follow the signboards and pass through maze-like alleys between buildings.

It was through Mr. Das that I learnt how the bureaucracy worked and how effective a well-oiled government machinery can be in matters of service delivery. Handling the media was another lesson I learnt from him.

From the very beginning, Mr. H. N. Das took keen interest in the workings of the different segments of the trade and quickly undertook the task of creating more space for the GTAC by asking several other offices then occupying the building—like Assam Tea Corporation, Assam Electronics Development Corporation, the Relief and Rehabilitation Department, and the Vigilance Commissioner's office—to move out, thus making more space available to GTAC.

Under the able guidance of Mr. Das, GTAC began modernising itself—establishing the Dust Auction Hall, air-conditioned main hall, and a telecom centre for the benefit of buyers and brokers. Of course, he also supported the setting up of the Guwahati Gymkhana Club as a separate entity to provide recreational avenues to the participants of the tea auctions. His guidance during the troubled decades of the 1980s and 1990s was immense.

As Chief Secretary later, and simultaneously Chairman of GTAC, the exposure he gave to GTAC at national and international levels through diplomatic missions abroad is something to be greatly appreciated.

In late 2023, as his health began to fail, I received a call from Mrs. Das, who expressed her desire to compile a booklet of reflections from friends and associates close to him. She said she believed it’s always better for a person to hear kind words while still alive rather than posthumously. It was a touching gesture.

The one person who can most rightfully stake a claim to shaping GTAC into its present stature is Mr. H. N. Das. That said, it would be remiss not to acknowledge that the Guwahati Tea Auction Committee has always been steered by dedicated Chairmen appointed by the Government of Assam since 1970. Among them, another distinguished son of the soil and ex-Chief Secretary, Mr. Dharmananda Das, made significant contributions to GTAC’s early years, serving as Chairman from 1970 to 1979, and again from 1979 to 1981.

My own association with GTAC began in 1984 and continued until 2015. Naturally, my earliest and most vivid recollections revolve around Mr. H. N. Das’s tenure. As a long-serving Chairman from 1986 to 1996, and as someone I worked closely with, he left an indelible impact—on both the institution and me personally.

I share one memory in particular.

The decade between 1987 and 1997 was one of great uncertainty for GTAC. Buyers were jittery. Political will to tackle the marauding militants appeared uncertain. The gravest moment arrived on 8th November 1990, when Brooke Bond and Lipton, GTAC’s largest buyers, pulled out without prior notice. Their sudden withdrawal, coupled with the prolonged absence of the Soviet buyer—who once accounted for over 60 million kg of tea purchases from Guwahati—struck at the heart of our operations and left the auction centre reeling.

In the auctions that followed, around 50,000 packages of tea worth Rs. 14 crore were withdrawn, and another 2.47 million kg, valued at Rs. 17 crore, remained unsold. The situation was dire. There were genuine fears that the collapse of GTAC would lead to massive job losses and a cascading impact on the state's tea industry, which supported the livelihoods of over 15 lakh people.

It is worth noting that until the early 1990s, GTAC had emerged as the world’s largest CTC Tea Auction Centre and the second-largest auction centre for all teas—next only to Colombo. From a modest beginning in 1970, handling just 9.1 million kg of tea, GTAC grew exponentially, selling 135.52 million kg in 1994 alone, valued at approximately Rs. 600 crore. Between 1987 and the mid-1990s, the State exchequer earned Rs. 12 to 15 crore annually from auction operations during that phase of GTAC's growth.

At the time, Mr. Das, in his official capacity, wrote to the Union Commerce Ministry to convey the gravity of the crisis following the abrupt exit of key buyers. With Unilever—owners of both Brooke Bond and Lipton—yet to return, he also marked a NOO copy of the letter to the state leadership, pointedly noting that without visible improvement in the law-and-order environment, the buyers were unlikely to resume operations in Guwahati.

These remarks, though grounded in fact, were not well received. In a quiet but telling turn of events, Mr. Das was suspended. The timing did not go unnoticed. Yet he bore it with silence and dignity—that was his character: measured, principled, and deeply committed to public service. The very next day, a call came from the Raj Bhawan. By the end of that day, the order was revoked and he was reinstated. The episode had lasted only 24 hours. He resumed his duties—and with them, his steadfast efforts to hold GTAC together.

I worked closely with him through those anxious days. He reached out personally to the management of Lipton and Brooke Bond, offering them full protection and even the option to sample teas outside Assam or to purchase initially through intermediaries—whatever it took to reassure them. The public outcry, stakeholder support, repeated assurances from the Assam Government, and the fact that GTAC operations never truly came to a halt all played their part. The Buyers' Association asked its members to stretch their limits to the maximum extent possible. Smaller buyers went beyond their normal quantities. The biggest helping hand came from Tata Tea. Not only did they openly come out in support of the GTAC, but they also showed their intent by buying much more than they normally did.

Eventually, the message got through. Unilever returned, and by early 1991, the auction had regained its footing. In time, the storm passed, and Guwahati's tea trade steadied once again.

I was away at the time of his passing. A senior official noted that Shri H. N. Das, former Chief Secretary of Assam and a doyen of the state bureaucracy, breathed his last at his residence beside a Namghar—on land he himself had donated—in Guwahati. He passed away in profound peace, an end few are blessed with. One could almost sense the quiet joy of his liberation.

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