Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday mounted a bitter attack on Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, accusing him of having links with Pakistan and accusing the Congress party of fielding him as a candidate despite it. Sarma also stated that he planned to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in person to ask for an explanation.
Campaigning for the next panchayat polls, Sarma alleged that Gogoi's wife, British citizen Elizabeth Colburn, had made 19 trips between India and Pakistan. "Congressmen and Pakistanis are one, they sympathize with Pakistan," he stated. "I am going to see Kharge with all this evidence. We need answers. I will ask him—if your MP acts like this, why allot him a ticket? This is not going to stop here—it will go higher."
He also questioned Gogoi's 15-day visit to Pakistan, suggesting ulterior motives. "Gaurav Gogoi is in the suspicion zone because there is no Kaziranga or Manas National Park in Pakistan. There's nothing to look at there. Why would anybody spend 15 days in Pakistan? Unless one goes for training, it does not make sense," Sarma accused.
In an unusual remark, Sarma questioned Gogoi’s religious practices, saying, “The way Gogoi offers namaz, no Muslim can do it with such perfection. A new learner would make mistakes, but Gogoi doesn’t.”
Taking a personal swipe, the CM also attacked Gogoi for supposedly making his children foreign nationals. "It's different if children settle abroad and later take up foreign citizenship. But would I ever deliberately make my children foreign nationals?" he questioned.
Sarma also added that Gogoi needs to respond to all these questions and threatened a legal process would kick in soon. "There's a law in the country. It will seek answers. In the next two to three months, the government will initiate the process."
He labeled Gogoi as arrogant and accused that he thinks he can escape scrutiny. "He thinks that he's too smart and that if he doesn't react, he'll get away.". He needs to explain each of those 15 days in Pakistan. He told me he'd file a case against me when this matter arose. Has he? I invited it and said I'd produce all the documents in court, but nothing materialized. Both Gaurav Gogoi and Jairam Ramesh tweeted legal action—so where is the case?
" Sarma asked.
Gogoi, now the Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, came back with a strong retort. "When Himanta Biswa Sarma is bringing my family into politics, I am preoccupied with actual issues of people," he asserted. "Our politics is all about jobless youth, no schoolbooks, and parents selling off their children to traffickers as they are poor. These are the things we worry about."
Questioning the CM, Gogoi asked the report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was formed by the Assam government to investigate his supposed ties with Pakistan, to be released. "What has happened to the SIT report? If something is there, come forward," he challenged.
Gogoi also accused the CM of bringing back the controversy surrounding him to divert attention from his own controversial remarks on women in Assam. "The CM recently made derogatory remarks about Assamese women. To divert attention, he mentioned my name again," Gogoi stated.
Sarma had earlier been criticized for his comments implying that women needed to "take a wrong path" to get jobs during the Congress-era APSC recruitment.
Earlier in March, the Assam government had hinted at possibly involving international agencies like Interpol to investigate Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, who allegedly has connections to Gogoi’s wife and is accused of interfering in India’s internal affairs.
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