Communicator & PR expert Sailo gets Bhupen Hazarika Nat’l award

Aizawl: Union minister for Development of North East region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday conferred the Dr Bhupen Hazarika National Award 2025 on former director of Mizoram information & public relations LR Sailo, who retired as the regional director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), North Eastern Regional Campus, Aizawl.Sailo, a communicator & public relations expert, is among the six personalities from the northeast who received the Dr Bhupen Hazarika National Award 2025 at the NEDFi Convention Centre in Guwahati in Hazarika’s birth centenary year (1926-2026).Born on March 1, 1949, Sailo received his early education at Shillong’ Don Bosco Technical School till 1966. He graduated from St Anthony’s College, Shillong, with honours in economics in 1971.Before entering Mizoram govt service in 1973, he was involved in social work, such as Rotaract, Moral Rearmament. He had travelled across Europe with Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, then editor-in-chief of Himmat Weekly. He spoke about non-violence to students at universities in Lyon, France, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Oxford and Cambridge in England and Trento in Italy.Sailo joined the Mizoram govt service as district information and public relations officer (Dipro) in 1973 and served as press information officer (PIO) to chief ministers till his promotion to director of information and public relations in 1992.

Immediately after his retirement, he was appointed as press secretary to CM for two terms during Lal Thanhawla’s tenure.He served during the most critical years of insurgency in Mizoram when violence was prevalent and the public was sandwiched between the Indian Army and the outlawed Mizo National Army (MNF).During this time, he organised media campaigns against violence and made efforts to bring the alienated Mizos into the mainstream of national life, in cooperation with church leaders, media and civil societies. This campaign was to largely responsible for bringing peace in Mizoram in 1986. Since then, Mizoram became the most peaceful state in the northeast.Sailo served as the regional director of IIMC’s North East Regional Campus for 12 years before being relieved of his responsibilities in Aug 2023.