Congress leader Guarav Gogoi on Wednesday sought to turn the tables against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over the latter's allegations of ISI links against his wife Elizabeth and him.
In a terse response to Sarma's charges of harbouring ties with Pakistan, Gogoi pointed to the visits to Pakistan by BJP leaders including party veteran LK Advani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Alleging that Gogoi and his wife had links with Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI, the Assam CM also set up an SIT to investigate the matter this February. Sarma has long alleged that Gogoi visited Pakistan in an unspecified year for 15 days, and now claims that the visit was undertaken at the ISI's invitation.
Sarma has also alleged that Gogoi led a delegation of youths to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi in 2015, as an initiative by an organisation he founded called the Youth Forum on Foreign Policy, to “brainwash” them.
While Gogoi has consistently denied the allegations as "absurd" -- pointing out that the youths present there posed difficult questions to Pakistani officials on its policies on Kashmir, war and terror -- he has now chosen to take the attack a notch up and referred to the visits to Pakistan undertaken by BJP leaders.
Citing a 2005 visit by Advani, Gogoi said, “He had even visited Jinnah’s grave, laid a chadar there and eulogised Jinnah.” He also referred to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attending Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in 2014, and Modi’s “surprise visit” to Lahore in 2015.
“The year Modi went to Lahore to wish Nawaz Sharif ‘happy birthday’ is the same year we had the question and answer with the Pakistan High Commissioner. Us going is an offence, and Modi going is biryani diplomacy? I have written in the past that I have no faith in the Pakistan leadership that they will break their terrorist-intelligence-military nexus. We didn’t go to do Jinnah eulogising, we didn’t go to wish Nawaz Sharif happy birthday…This SIT has nothing to do with the truth. It is a political and defamatory tactic,” Gogoi said in a post on X.
On Sunday, the Assam CM alleged that Gogoi visited Pakistan on the ISI's invitation to get training. "He went to Pakistan on the invitation of the ISI. I am saying this for the first time… And he definitely went there to get training. Why else would ISI call him?" Sarma said.
"If I am invited by the interior ministry of Pakistan and I went there without informing the Government of India, you can imagine that the crimes of people like Jyoti Malhotra are nothing compared to that. If this is not espionage, then what is? And then return and protest against Rafale. Return and ask in the Parliament where security layers have been made on the coastal route. Where India’s nuclear weapons are kept. Who has written and given these questions to you? That is what he learnt at the training programme there,” Sarma claimed on Sunday.
Gogoi, on his part, rejected Sarma's allegations and claimed that the Assam CM of harbouring personal animosity towards him since the start of his political journey.
"You are a Chief Minister. There should be some difference between you and a Rs 500 BJP troll. But whenever we ask for proof, the CM says we have to wait till September… Till date, he has not given any proof… Give the final report in September, but give us some evidence at least about all these allegations that you are making. We also want to know," Gogoi said.
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