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Gogoi\u2019s wife Elizabeth worked for Pakistani agent Ali Tauqeer Sheikh: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHe stayed there for 10 days. Strangely, Gogoi was digitally silent and no social media post was made. We suspect he went through some kind of training in that period,\u201d the chief minister said.Sarma further alleged that after returning from Pakistan and later becoming an MP, Gogoi asked questions in the Lok Sabha on military preparedness, security matters, defence hardware, nuclear plants, espionage and the Kashmir conflict. \u201cA first-time MP asking such confidential questions, how can it not be linked to his Pakistan visit?\u201d he asked.\u201cIf Gogoi cannot come out clean on his Pakistan stay, then charges of ‘rashtra-droh’ (treason) will have to be imposed on him,\u201d Sarma added.Allegations over foreign links<\/span>The chief minister also alleged that Colburn had worked with LEAD Pakistan, an organisation run by Sheikh, before moving to India, and that her salary continued to be paid by Sheikh even while she was working in the country. \u201cBut her salary continued to be paid by Sheikh,\u201d Sarma said.He claimed that LEAD Pakistan sent money to LEAD India, which then paid Colburn \u201cbypassing FCRA regulations\u201d, and suggested that special permission might have been obtained during the UPA government\u2019s tenure. \u201cPakistani agencies cannot donate to an Indian entity as it’s an enemy nation. Probably special permission was obtained in UPA time to pay Colburn,\u201d he said.Sarma also alleged that Colburn gathered information from Intelligence Bureau sources related to climate action after Narendra Modi came to power and sent a \u201c45-page report\u201d to Sheikh. \u201cColburn got information from IB sources about climate action after Narendra Modi came to power. She sent a 45-page report to Sheikh,\u201d he claimed.The chief minister asserted that Colburn had travelled to Islamabad six times while working with LEAD India and three more times after joining another NGO. He further alleged that she maintained a Pakistani bank account to receive salary payments and that Gogoi did not mention this in his election affidavit. \u201cNow, I feel his opponent should complain to the EC about giving wrong information in the affidavit,\u201d Sarma said.Sarma said the state government would seek cancellation of Colburn\u2019s Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status, claiming her presence was detrimental to India.\u201cWe believe there is a deeper connection between Gogoi, Colburn and Sheikh. We believe that Colburn and Sheikh were part of an international conspiracy,\u201d Sarma said. He added that the Assam Police had recommended a national-level probe by the ministry of home affairs, stating, \u201cSo we recommended a national probe by the Ministry of Home Affairs.\u201dCongress hits back<\/span>Gogoi, who is also the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee chief, dismissed the press conference as politically motivated. \u201cI pity the journalists from Delhi and Assam who had to suffer the most flop press conference of the century. This was worse than a C grade cinema,\u201d he wrote on X while the presser was underway.He described the allegations as \u201cMost mindless and bogus points\u201d offered by the \u201cso-called political shrewd\u201d chief minister and termed the episode a \u201c#SuperFlop\u201d\u201cThis #SuperFlop is in contrast to our #XomoyParivartanYatra which has been a hit in uncovering the 12,000 bighas of land occupied by the Chief Minister and his family members,\u201d Gogoi said.Earlier in the week, responding to similar allegations linking his wife to Pakistan\u2019s intelligence agency ISI, Gogoi said, \u201cIf my wife is an ISI agent of Pakistan, I am a R&AW agent of India. I don’t mind if a family against whom there are various cases and several allegations, makes allegations against me. The (Assam) chief minister is making these allegations only to put away allegations against him.\u201dDismissing the charges as \u201clies and rumours\u201d, he said, \u201cToday, BJP doesn’t have any issues to raise. They are dependent on spreading lies. I feel that people of the country are very intelligent and they can see the difference between lies and truth. Let them spread rumours, we will continue to do our work.\u201dPolitical backdrop<\/span>The faceoff comes as Assam prepares for assembly elections, with both the BJP and the Congress sharpening their campaigns. Sarma\u2019s remarks mark a significant escalation, introducing allegations of national security, foreign funding violations and possible treason into the electoral discourse.The BJP has framed the issue as one involving potential foreign influence and FCRA violations, while the Congress has characterised the allegations as diversionary tactics aimed at deflecting attention from state-level issues and charges against the chief minister.Sarma also said the Assam Police\u2019s Special Investigation Team did not question Gogoi directly \u201cas he is a sitting MP. We have left it to the Centre, showing some respect to his position\u201d.\u201cIf I arrest Gogoi now, I will be accused of doing politics before elections. Arresting is a harsh step. I feel Gogoi is the most vulnerable politician in India now, as all his movements in the 10-day stay must have been photographed and recorded in Pakistan,\u201d he said.With the campaign intensifying, the allegations and counter-allegations have injected a sharp national security dimension into Assam\u2019s electoral battle, setting the stage for a polarised contest in the weeks ahead.<\/div>\n\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi NEW DELHI: Assam chief minister…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3614,3618,724,1119,3620,3479,723,3480,719,720,721,3619,3616,3617,3615,722],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assam-elections-2023","tag-assam-political-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-congress-party","tag-fcra-violations","tag-gaurav-gogoi","tag-google-news","tag-himanta-biswa-sarma","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-lead-pakistan","tag-national-security-allegations","tag-pakistan-visit-2013","tag-rashtra-droh-charges","tag-today-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Gogoi\u2019s](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-128078244,imgsize-56900,width-400,resizemode-4\/128078244.jpg\" "\\"Gogoi\u2019s")
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