Gaurav Gogoi rejected Himanta Sarma’s allegations over his Pakistan visit, called them baseless, and said the CM crossed limits by targeting his family.
APCC chief Gaurav Gogoi addresses a press conference in Guwahati, responding to allegations made by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (Photo: X)
The political confrontation between Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi intensified today with Gogoi strongly rejecting the allegations made against him and accusing the Chief Minister of lowering the standards of political discourse in the state.
Addressing a press conference at Rajiv Bhawan in Guwahati, Gogoi said the accusations related to his 2013 visit to Pakistan were politically motivated and based on misinformation. He clarified that the trip was neither secret nor illegal. According to Gogoi, soon after his marriage in 2013, he travelled to Pakistan for around ten days to accompany his wife, Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi, who was then working on an international climate-change programme funded by the governments of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. He said the programme was being implemented in several Asian countries and his wife had to stay in Pakistan for nearly a year as part of her professional assignment.
Gogoi said he accompanied his wife as any newly married husband would do and that all necessary legal permissions were obtained before the visit. He added that the travel included cities such as Lahore and Taxila and was conducted openly without hiding any details from authorities. He also pointed out that Taxila has historical links with ancient Indian civilisation, emphasising that the visit had nothing unusual or suspicious about it.
The Congress leader further stated that after he became a Member of Parliament in 2014, he submitted his passport, which carried the Pakistan entry stamp, to the central government as part of official procedures. He noted that the same government later issued him a diplomatic passport, which, according to him, clearly showed that authorities were fully aware of his earlier travel. “If there had been anything wrong, the government would not have issued a diplomatic passport,” he said.
Responding to allegations that his wife had shared sensitive information with Pakistan, Gogoi described the claims as “completely baseless.” He said that once her assignment ended and she returned to India, all bank accounts and professional links connected to her work in Pakistan were formally closed, and the family has since had no institutional or financial connection with the neighbouring country.
Gogoi also questioned the functioning of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the matter. He claimed that during the course of the investigation he was never asked any questions regarding his 2013 visit and alleged that the report had been pending for months because, according to him, there was no evidence supporting the allegations being made.
At the same time, Gogoi criticised the Chief Minister over remarks and social media posts related to the controversy, saying such statements were creating unnecessary tension in public life. He also expressed strong objection to references to his minor children in the ongoing political dispute, describing it as “deeply disturbing” and saying political disagreements should remain limited to public issues and elected representatives.
He warned that if personal attacks on his family continued, he would consider taking legal action and pursue the matter through all available legal channels, adding that political competition should not cross basic limits of dignity and responsibility.
