Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday urged Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi to defend his father, Tarun Gogoi, amid a row over a government report on the 'cash-for-job' scam in state civil services recruitment. During a discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the Governor's speech in the Assam Assembly, Mr Sarma said that he had to table the report after Congress insisted.
"I want Gaurav Gogoi that being the son of Tarun Gogoi, he must defend his father. Strangely, three days have passed since the report came out and accusations were levelled against his father, but there is no statement. These are the warriors of new Assam...Tarun Gogoi is no more, and I never wanted people to remember him associating him with corruption in APSC," the Chief Minister said.
The report, which probed into the anomalies in the conduct of the Assam Public Service Commission's (APSC) Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) in 2013 and 2014, was tabled in the state assembly earlier this week. The report highlighted the role of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in appointing the prime accused Rakesh Kumar Paul first as a member and later as chairman of the APSC.
It states that Mr Paul's appointment was based solely on a personal application he submitted to Mr Gogoi on September 6, 2008 - without any formal selection process or background verification. The process was "ill-founded, paving the way for widespread corruption". It also mentioned that Mr Paul made APSC a "shop selling jobs".
It was also mentioned that Mr Paul had gifted gold jewellery to Gaurav Gogoi as a wedding gift.
The Assam Chief Minister alleged that the opposition leader did not declare to the Income Tax Department about the expensive gifts he received during his wedding.
"Anyone can receive gifts at a wedding, no problem with that. It has to be reported to Income Tax. I have read his 2014 election affidavit and this jewellery was not shown there. We all know that gift tax is 30 per cent. Gaurav has not denied taking the gifts in the last three days," he said.
However, at the time of Gaurav Gogoi's wedding, Mr Paul was neither the chairman of APSC nor there was any probe against him.
The Chief Minister further told the assembly that one day, he will resent a comparison document between the "dark history" of Congress tenure and BJP's "transparent and clean" system in the recruitment process of the state.
Row over Gaurav Gogoi's Pakistani links
Himanta Sarma also hit out at Gaurav Gogoi over his alleged Pakistan links in the state assembly.
A controversy erupted on February 12 when BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia alleged that Mr Gogoi's wife Elizabeth Colburn shared ties with the ISI while she worked with the Climate and Knowledge Development Network in Islamabad under Ali Tauqeer Sheikh Sheikh, a former advisor to the Planning Commission of Pakistan. Mr Sarma, without naming Mr Gogoi, also raised similar accusations the same day, prompting a sharp retort from the Congress leader.
On Monday, the Chief Minister said that Ms Colburn will be probed over her alleged links with Pakistan and her alleged participation in the Lok Sabha election campaigns despite being a British citizen.
"Pakistani national Ali Sheikh against whom the state government has filed an FIR for his comments that could disturb internal harmony in the country, travelled to India at least 18 times between 2010 and 2018, Assam Police has found in its preliminary investigation. The SIT probing the matter found only in three days that Sheikh travelled multiple times to India. In the detailed investigation, we will get to know who brought him to India and who met Sheikh. This information will be revealed in the next few days," Mr Sarma told the assembly.
He added, "The initial information I got in this matter will be very fatal for the Congress party. It will be very difficult for them to handle...The committee report was just 10 per cent. This Pak links matter is 1000 per cent and it is going to be huge."
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