Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday alleged that a senior Congress figure had revealed that MP Gaurav Gogoi’s British wife was receiving payments from the Pakistani government — a claim he described as a “startling confession.”
According to Sarma, this disclosure was not previously known, and the state government now intends to document the statement made by Congress leader Ripun Bora and investigate the issue further.
Sarma and the BJP have heightened their attack on Gogoi for alleged connections between his wife and Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI.
The Chief Minister stated that Elizabeth Colburn, wife of Gogoi, has taken 19 India-Pakistan trips. Former Rajya Sabha member Ripun Bora, while speaking on Sunday, pointed out that Colburn works for an international NGO that has operations in Pakistan and several other countries. In this context, she had been paid a salary by Pakistan and had gone to the country on work several times. Is this reason enough to doubt someone's patriotism?" Many Indians and Pakistanis are legally employed in each other's countries, Bora said, according to a Congress party press release.
Posting his grievances on X (formerly Twitter), Sarma stated, "Yesterday, senior Congress leader Sri Ripun Bora made a shocking admission — he admitted that the British wife of Hon'ble MP Sri Gaurav Gogoi was indeed on the Pakistan Government's payroll."
Sarma claimed that if Bora's claim is true, it raises "deeply alarming questions about national security." He further said, "The sustained presence of someone connected to a hostile foreign state — right at the inner circles of a sitting Member of Parliament — is a serious and unacceptable danger to the integrity of India's institutions.
He underscored that his government never had any previous knowledge of such allegations and is presently examining the issue with "the seriousness it deserves." Reiterating his position, Sarma asserted, "National security is non-negotiable," and assured that Bora's claim would be properly recorded and acted upon.
Earlier, Gaurav Gogoi had seriously condemned Sarma's allegations, calling them "ridiculous, baseless, insane and nonsense." Gogoi also accused the CM of behaving crazily, comparing his actions to those of an "IT cell troll," and hinted that personal problems could be driving Sarma.
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