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It was a proud
moment for Mizoram’s Department of Information & Public
Relations when its Director
 L.R. Sailo
was accredited with the ‘Fellow of the Brain Trust of ABCI’. In
a simple but solemn award launching ceremony held at NCA
Complex, Mumbai on the evening of 20th April 2007, the ABCI gave
away its Fellowship for the first time to 10 selected persons
from all over India. The ten recipients of the Fellowship were
Mr P R Joshi, President of Group HR & Corporate Communications,
Cadilla Healthcare Ltd; Mr Sanjay Singh, Vice President Public
Affairs, Tata Services Ltd; Mr Debajit Rath, Chief Corporate
Affairs, SAIL; Prof Ms Jeroo Mulla, HoD, Social Media
Communications, Sophia College; Dr GPC Nayar, Chairman, SCMS
Group of Educational Institutions; Mr Shivnath Thukral,
Executive Editor, NDTV Profit; Mr M B Jayaram, General Manager,
Corporate Communications, Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd; Dr G
C Banik, National Professor, University Grant Commission; Mr L R
Sailo, Director, I & PR, Govt. of Mizoram and Mr Yogesh Joshi,
President, ABCI.
The Association
of Business Communicators of India (ABCI) is a 50 year old
organisation, formed by outstanding professionals in the fields
of Business Communication, PR & Business Journalism, Academics,
PR from Governmental Agencies and PR Consultancy. The
Association has member list featuring names such as Tata Steel,
SAIL, Tata Motors, M&M, Glaxo, Pfizer, Aditya Birla Group
Companies, Hotel Taj Mahal, Bharat Petroleum, ONGC, Reserve Bank
of India, SBI, Bank of Baroda, IDBI, LIC, etc. This is the first
time that the organisation has given accreditation to top
professionals purely on merit, with no commercial interest.
The only
recipient of the Fellowship to be a government official as well
as from the Northeast, L R Sailo,
 a public relations officer by
profession, was born on 1 March 1949 and graduated with Honours
in Economics from St. Anthony’s College, Shillong in 1971.
Before entering government service, he was actively involved in
social work with the Roteracts and the Moral Re-Armament, an
international society. He has travelled across Europe with
Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, then Editor of
Himmat Weekly. During his travels, he had the privilege of
speaking on the subject of Non-Violence at Lyon in France,
Rotterdam in Netherland, Oxford and Cambridge in England and to
University students in Trento, Italy. He has also worked and
lived with the IRA in Northern Ireland at Derry and Belfast in
1971.
L.R. Sailo
joined the Information & Public Relations Department in the
Government of Mizoram as District Information & Public Relations
Officer in 1973 and was promoted to the rank of Director in
1992, which he holds till date. In the span of his career as
PRO, he has served as Press Information Officer and Press
Secretary to all the Chief Ministers of Mizoram. During the most
critical years of Insurgency in Mizoram, he had organised media
campaign against violence and made efforts jointly with the NGOs
and Church leaders to bring the alienated Mizos into the
national mainstream. Since communication gap was mainly
responsible for insurgency in Mizoram, his efforts to project
the state in the right way to the media in spite of lack of
facilities paid off dividends. The campaign he organised was to
a great extent responsible for bringing about peace in the state
in 1986.
Under his able
administration, the Mizoram I& PR Department has often been
hailed as the most competent and well-known in the region and
perhaps in the country as well. Commenting on his Fellowship,
L.R. Sailo has this to say: “It is not my recognition alone but
rather a prestigious honour for all my colleagues in the
service. In all my years serving under different ministries, I
never once compromised on my basic moral principles and ethics.
Today when I look back, I think I did well to listen to my
conscience and not be swayed.”
The
accreditation feted to the I&PR Director was equally applauded
by his staff, his former colleagues and the state’s media, which
made the story the headline of most local newspapers and cable
TV channels.
Mizo Aw, one of
the most popular dailies, wrote in its 28th April issue that
I&PR Director Mr L R Sailo’s accreditation is an honour not only
for him but for the entire department and the state’s media too.
It also reported that although I&PR was one of the most useful
departments for the government, it was on the other hand one of
the most neglected and under-equipped. The credibility lies
solely with the department that it has performed excellently
in-spite of the shortcomings and that the government should take
steps to reward it suitably.
The Zozam
Times, a widely circulated vernacular paper, wrote that PR has
always been a thankless job but in today’s world, the PR
profession and personnel deserve to be highlighted. Mr L R
Sailo’s accreditation with the Fellow of the Brain Trust of ABCI
has finally brought recognition to the true contribution and
value of public relations.
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