My wife spent a year in Pak; i visited once, says Gogoi

In his first public elaboration on allegations of the "Pakistani connection" levelled against him and his British wife by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, newly-appointed Assam PCC president Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday said his wife had spent a year in Pakistan in connection with work about 13 years ago and that he did visit the neighbouring nation around that time. But beyond that, Gogoi insisted, there was nothing and he termed Sarma's charges as a "smear campaign".

"There have been some allegations and I want to clarify so that the people of the state are not misled. About 14-15 years ago, my wife, who is a well-known expert in public policy, was involved in an international initiative addressing climate change in South Asia. As part of that work, she spent a year in Pakistan and then came to India in 2012-13, where she has been working ever since. In 2015, she took up a new job," Gogoi said at a presser at the AICC.

"I visited there (Pakistan), accompanied her in 2013, about 12 years ago," he said.

Referring to Sarma's charge on his children's citizenship, Gogoi said, "When it comes to questions related to the citizenship of members of my family, that, I believe, is a private and personal matter".

Gogoi targeted Sarma saying: "The facts are out here. It is for the chief minister, if has found something illegal, to make those facts public...The chief minister is trying to turn this into a C-grade Bollywood movie with a so-called release date of September 10. This story is bound to be a complete flop. The people of Assam are already aware of the truth".

He claimed that Sarma was making charges to create apprehensions in the mind of the AICC but his elevation as PCC chief showed that the CM has failed in his effort. "I am grateful to the CM for enhancing my profile," Gogoi quipped.

He asked the CM to focus on "the real issues" of the state such as illegal mining and drugs and said the Congress will lead the fight to defeat the "corrupt state government" and will offer a new development model to Assam.