GUWAHATI, Feb 10 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Tuesday that state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi’s “admission of visiting Rawalpindi without visa” during his 2013 Pakistan trip proves that he was a “state guest” in the neighbouring country.
Sarma on Sunday claimed that Gogoi had gone to Rawalpindi in that year, though he had visa only for Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The next day, the Congress leader said that the general passport, which was submitted to the Centre to get a diplomatic one after he became an MP in 2014, has “all details” of his visit.
“Gogoi has himself said that he went to Rawalpindi. And since he went without visa, he must have gone in a car of the Pakistan army or the police,” Sarma said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official event in Bongaigaon.
“If he has gone without visa, it means he was a state guest. He revealed it before I could do it, and that video clip is enough to be presented in court,” the CM added.
Ahead of the Assembly elections, Sarma and Gogoi have been engaged in a verbal duel, with Sarma alleging that the Congress MP and his family have Pakistani links.
Gogoi, at a presser here on Monday, had said that he visited Takshashila in Pakistan with his wife, with due permission, while on a 10-day trip to the neighbouring country in December 2013. Takshashila is an ancient centre of higher learning and a city near Rawalpindi.
Gogoi’s wife, Elizabeth Coulburn, was posted in Islamabad for a year in 2012, before shifting to New Delhi, and the couple’s visit soon after their marriage was related to her work, the Congress leader claimed on Monday.
Sarma had demanded a “transparent explanation” from Gogoi over his Takshashila visit in Rawalpindi district.
Responding to the charge, Gogoi had claimed Sarma was “floundering and sinking in his own web of lies”. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
