 "Gaurav Gogoi has slammed the BJP for allegations against his wife, Elizabeth Gogoi. X")
A political storm is brewing in Assam as the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spar over the alleged “links” of Elizabeth Gogoi, the wife of Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi, to Pakistan’s spy agency. The saffron party is targeting Gogoi over the allegations, while Congress has dismissed them as a “distraction”.
Both parties have threatened legal action over the controversy. With Assam set to go to polls early next year, the issue has garnered much attention.
Let’s take a closer look.
Who is Elizabeth Gogoi?
Born in the United Kingdom as Elizabeth Colebourn, she works in the field of climate policy. Elizabeth Gogoi has a Masters in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics (LSE). She married Gaurav Gogoi, Congress leader and son of former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, in 2013.
Elizabeth Gogoi worked for the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) between March 2011 to January 2015. According to her profile on the CDKN website, she coordinated CDKN’s programme in India and Nepal. She reportedly worked in Pakistan for some time during her stint here.
It is her work at CDKN that has come under the BJP’s scanner.
What has BJP alleged?
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has raised questions about Elizabeth Gogoi’s foreign citizenship and accused her of “links” with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
On February 13, he tweeted a picture of a 2015 meeting at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi between the then-Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit and a delegation of youths led by Gaurav Gogoi.
Questioning the “intent behind his engagement”, Sarma accused the Congress leader of eventually raising questions in Parliament on “sensitive defence matters”.
Responding to this, Gogoi said he and some friends had formed an organisation called Youth Forum on Foreign Policy in 2011 so that “Indian students and young professionals can get the opportunity to discuss foreign policy and international relations”. He said this group organised discussions with Indian diplomats and foreign ambassadors.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe Assam CM also levelled allegations against Elizabeth Gogoi, questioning her work in Islamabad with CDKN under Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, a former advisor to the Planning Commission of Pakistan.
Targeting Gogoi’s wife, Sarma claimed she had in the past “spent time in Pakistan, employed by an organisation widely believed to be a front for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).”
Tauqeer Sheikh, a Pakistani national, was the Director Asia of CDKN from 2009 to 2016. Referring to him, Sarma said, “… a perusal of his social media activity includes exhaustive commentary on India’s internal affairs and parliamentary matters raising serious concerns on the said individual’s intention to compromise and damage India’s interests.”
For Elizabeth Gogoi, Sarma said, “We hope that as a wife of an Assam MP, even if she is a British citizen, she will cooperate in this inquiry, assist us, share her passport, visa and travel documents with us.”
“Elizabeth Colebourn, the wife of deputy Leader of Opposition Gaurav Gogoi… her links with Pakistan Planning Commission Advisor Ali Tauqeer Sheikh and the ISI, have been found. This is extremely concerning and related to national security, so it is expected that Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Gaurav Gogoi will clarify her relations with Pakistan and ISI,” BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia said last week.
The Assam CM is now hinting that the Congress leader may have been “trapped or blackmailed” as part of a larger “anti-India” conspiracy.
“We started discussing this topic about a parliamentarian, but now it has escalated to a much higher level. It is no longer related to Gaurav Gogoi. Now, we have proof or information of an anti-India force actively working behind this,” Sarma told reporters on Sunday.
The Assam Police have registered a complaint against Tauqeer Sheikh after Sarma said yesterday that his Cabinet had directed the Director General of Police to file a case for “explicit involvement” in “India’s internal affairs”.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has also been formed.
Last week, Sarma called for a detailed inquiry, involving the “entire ecosystem and sympathisers”, saying apprehensions have emerged about whether ISI had tried to infiltrate the CMO when Gogoi’s father was the CM, reported PTI.
Congress responds
The Congress has rejected Sarma’s and the BJP’s allegations. Gogoi, the Congress MP from Jorhat, called the accusations against his wife “laughable".
“If my wife is an ISI agent of Pakistan, then 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 accusations against me. The Assam chief minister is making these allegations only to divert attention from the allegations against him,” he told media.
Gogoi said on Sunday that the BJP was targeting him and his wife due to the Assam Assembly elections next year.
“I was aware that they were worried about me after the Jorhat Lok Sabha elections… The disinformation they are spreading now proves the weakness of the Assam BJP. Maybe the Chief Minister is worried about the changes within their organisational structure. The control he had within the party earlier is not there any longer, especially after the Jharkhand election results,” the Congress MP said, referring to the BJP’s loss in the 2024 Jharkhand Assembly election for which Sarma was the saffron party’s co-in-charge.
Gogoi had earlier accused the BJP of attempting to defame him and his family and threatened legal action.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also dismissed the allegations against Gogoi’s family as “an atrocious smear campaign” and “character assassination of the worst type”.
Taking a jibe at Sarma, he claimed that the people of Assam will make him a former CM in about 12 months and the BJP will then sit in the opposition.
“Who will be the former and present chief minister will be decided by the people of Assam — not by you. I do not wish to remind you of the humiliating defeat Congress has faced since 2014,” Sarma retorted.
With inputs from agencies