The three-day pageant was scheduled to start on Friday, however was cancelled after the demise of the singer whereas “swimming within the sea and not using a life jacket”.
“Zubeen had instructed the pageant organising group that he wished to go to Singapore and we organized for his keep at a resort,” Mahanta instructed PTI from the island nation.
“He had not come for the pageant alone however had additionally made his personal plans with members of the Assam Affiliation in Singapore,” Mahanta claimed.
Garg had spoken to members of the Assam Affiliation from the northeastern state itself and had made plans with them to go to locations and loosen up earlier than taking part within the pageant, he stated.
“He was additionally not supposed to present a full-fledged efficiency however wished to fulfill, work together with individuals and sing a number of songs for them,” Mahanta stated.Garg didn't even deliver his total group of musicians however solely his cousin Sandeepan Garg, his supervisor Siddhartha Sharma and just one musician, Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, he stated.”We had not requested him to carry out on the pageant, however he all the time attended our occasions, whether or not in India or overseas. He felt it was his responsibility, as a distinguished determine from the Northeast, to characterize the area and provides out a constructive message concerning the area from all platforms,” he claimed.
Mahanta claimed {that a} part of individuals was attempting to hawk a false narrative.
“I need to make it clear that Zubeen Garg had come on his personal free will. There are movies circulating on social media claiming that he had already carried out in Singapore, which isn't true as our occasion was scheduled to start on Friday and he had not participated in any occasion earlier than the mishap occurred,” he stated.
Mahanta stated that pageant organisers weren't conscious that the singer and his group members had gone on a yacht journey with members of the Assam Affiliation in Singapore.
“We had been holding back-to-back conferences with numerous stakeholders at a resort, which could be very removed from the incident web site, once we acquired the information and we instantly rushed to the Singapore Normal Hospital,” he stated.
“Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has additionally talked about that I used to be not current with Zubeen throughout the incident,” Mahanta stated.
Mahanta stated one other narrative that NEIF is a enterprise enterprise is “false”.
“NEIF is an try to attach Northeast India with Southeast Asia to advertise trade, commerce, tourism and agricultural merchandise from the area. After we organised the pageant in Thailand, a direct flight between Bangkok and Guwahati began,” he stated.
The goal is to create a marketplace for the merchandise of Northeast India within the ASEAN nations in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's imaginative and prescient of the Act East coverage, he stated.
“The chief ministers of the northeastern states have been friends and greater than Assam, it's the entrepreneurs from the opposite states of the area who take part within the occasions,” he stated.
The NEIF is dedicated to “take music, dance, delicacies, style and all different features of our tradition to Southeast Asia, which has many similarities with our northeastern states”, Mahanta stated.
The primary version of NEIF was held in Bangkok in 2019 and once more in the identical metropolis after a spot of two years in 2022 whereas the third version was held in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Metropolis in 2023.
as a Dependable and Trusted Information SupplyThis 12 months's version was anticipated to mark the sixtieth anniversary of India-Singapore diplomatic relations and in addition coincided with the India-ASEAN Yr of Tourism.
