- 3 hours ago
With just a few days left for the assembly elections, the political battle in Assam has turned personal. The Congress has targeted Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging his wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, holds multiple foreign passports and undisclosed offshore assets worth Rs 52,000 crore.
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00:00Good evening, you're watching To The Point. I'm Preeti Chaudhary.
00:02Let's keep the focus on the state of Assam and the electoral battle
00:06which is only but heating up and getting deeply personal and bitter.
00:10A no-holds-barred political slugfest, what began as a war of words
00:14has now spiraled into a personal face-off.
00:17The Congress has trained its guns on Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,
00:21flagging alleged foreign assets and multiple passports linked to his wife.
00:25Sarma has hit back, dismissing charges as false and politically motivated.
00:44Assam's election battle has turned into a no-holds-barred slugfest.
00:49Personal attacks, foreign links and explosive allegations now dominate the camp and trail.
00:59The Congress has gone on the offensive, targeting Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma
01:04with serious allegations over his wife's alleged foreign assets and multiple passports.
01:11How can an Indian national have three passports of three different countries?
01:18The Congress will answer that they will send the SIT on it.
01:22And we will answer our question, is she an Indian national?
01:25If she is, fine. If she is not, how dare Himanta Biswa Sarma questions the nationalism
01:31and the nationality of others?
01:35Sarma has hit back hard, calling Congress's allegations false and politically charged.
01:41The Chief Minister further turned the heat on Gaurav Gogoi, repeating claims of a Pakistan connection.
01:46Yesterday, my wife has filed an affair and I am sure that police will register the case in appropriate section
01:56of law and take necessary action.
01:59But why I have came before you today, because during our research we found the entire material of the press
02:10conference
02:11which has taken place yesterday was supplied from a Pakistani social media group.
02:18The Congress isn't backing down.
02:21The Congress isn't backing down.
02:48Gaurav Gogoi fired a barrage of questions at Sarma, demanding clarity on alleged Dubai visas, foreign properties and offshore business
02:56interests,
02:57daring the Chief Minister to face a probe if he has nothing to hide.
03:02Sarma's wife, Rinki Bhuvan Sarma, has trashed the charges as laughable, flatly denying any foreign assets
03:09and challenged Gaurav Gogoi to come clean on alleged Pakistan-linked financial connections.
03:13It seems that a mad dog has bitten them and from the top rung of the Congress to the lowest
03:22rung,
03:23I believe that they don't have anything else to do except defaming people and that too with AI generated and
03:33total photoshopping.
03:34With both sides now openly targeting each other's families, Sarma going after Gogoi's wife
03:41and the Congress training guns on Sarma's wife, the campaign has spiraled into a bitter personal face-off,
03:47packed with toolkit jibes, fake company claims and relentless Pakistan-linked charges.
03:53Bureau Report, India Today.
03:57A political face-off this evening.
03:59Joining me, Sanju Verma, National Spokesperson, Bharatiya Janata Party Advocate, Mahima Singh, National Spokesperson, Congress.
04:05The both of you will get two minutes each to put your point forward.
04:07I would like to begin with Sanju Verma.
04:10Sanju Verma, the fact is when one decides to enter a mud pit, you know you're going to get dirty
04:15too.
04:16It started off with the BJP, Himanta Biswasarma, leveling what many would say were unsubstantiated charges
04:24where he spoke of Gaurav Gogoi's wife having ISI links, having worked in Pakistan.
04:30Those charges were never substantiated.
04:33Today, possibly the Congress is doing exactly the same on the eve of election.
04:43Sanju Verma, could you hear my question?
04:46Okay, there's a problem with Sanju Verma's audio.
04:49We're going to try and connect to her.
04:50I want to bring in Mahima Singh.
04:51Mahima Singh, the charges leveled by the Congress where passports are concerned,
04:56where alleged property is concerned, which wasn't disclosed in the affidavit,
05:01that you haven't been able to substantiate even one single charge.
05:07Jai Hind, Preeti, we are not like the BJP and like their motor mouth leaders.
05:16Everything we say, every charge we make is backed with very significant evidence,
05:23which has been collated and provided to the public of this country and to the relevant authorities.
05:31In fact, I must apprise your audience through your show that we have filed an ECIR with the ED, Enforcement
05:41Directorate,
05:42and we have filed an election petition also today.
05:45The candidate who is fighting from that constituency, Jaluk Badi, the CM's constituency,
05:50has filed an election petition also today.
05:54So, you see, when we make allegations, we substantiate them, we take the necessary action,
06:01and it is already in play.
06:03Compared to the BJP, that just hurls elections, and especially the CM of Assam.
06:09We know what a motor mouth he is.
06:11Every now and then, he will hurl allegations during the Bharat Jodo Nyayatra.
06:15It was Rahul Gandhi body double.
06:17He had press conferences saying that I will present evidence, substantial evidence, which never came.
06:23He filed FIRs against Bhupen Borat and got him in his party.
06:27We do not know whatever happened to those FIRs.
06:30But here we are.
06:31The evidence that we have provided to the people of Assam,
06:34which is concerning 52,000 crores worth assets abroad in UAE, in other countries, Antigua, Babuja.
06:44You know, there are two passports in place.
06:46First, they made, you know, counter-attacks saying that this is not even a passport.
06:52Finally, they have come up with a rhetoric true to their form.
06:54And they will continue to do so.
06:56But what we have to see, and what we would like to see,
06:59whether the FIR is acted upon first or the ECIR.
07:04Now, the EC and ED both are on trial before the people of India, before the people of Assam.
07:10But Mahima Singh, I'm going to come back to you.
07:12I'm going to bring in Sanju Verma.
07:13But the fact is, this is falsifying of records is what the BJP says.
07:17You say we have proof.
07:18Where is the proof?
07:19Where it comes down to passports, to documents?
07:21Because each of and every data point that you have submitted in that press conference
07:27is being challenged today.
07:29And you haven't been able to back it up substantially.
07:32I'll come right back to it.
07:34I want to bring in Sanju Verma.
07:35You might disagree, ma'am, but I'll come back to it.
07:37And maybe you can provide us the evidence right here.
07:39I want to cut across to Sanju Verma, bring her into this conversation.
07:43Sanju Verma, the question that I had asked you earlier.
07:45You are going to, ma'am, allow me to ask you that question.
07:48If you're entering a mud pit, you're going to get dirty.
07:51It started off with Himanta Biswasarma levelling highly unsubstantiated charges
07:55on Gaurav Gogoi's wife and her alleged links, which what he said was to ISI in Pakistan.
08:00Till date, there has been no substantial, the charges have not been substantiated.
08:05There has been no proof.
08:06So the Congress can do the same there.
08:10You know, Preeti, I hope you can hear me because I could barely hear your question.
08:15Ma'am, we can hear you very well.
08:16Go ahead.
08:17Yes, I've assumed what you're saying.
08:19But I'll just make a few very quick points.
08:22The only word I could keep hearing the Congress spokesperson saying is,
08:26motor mouth, motor mouth, motor mouth.
08:28If there is a motor mouth in the Congress party, it is Pawan Khera.
08:32If there is a motor mouth in the Congress party, it is Jairam Ramesh.
08:35If there is a motor mouth in the Congress party, it is Supriya Srinath.
08:38And the biggest motor mouth who makes reckless allegations is Rahul Gandhi.
08:42Now, very categorically, I will debunk each of the reckless allegations made by Pawan Khera,
08:48who's translated press conferences into a big circus.
08:52Let me say one thing.
08:54In the so-called UAE passport, the birth date of Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife is mentioned as 1996,
09:04whereas Himanta Biswa Sarma's date of birth is 1973.
09:08The second point I want to make.
09:11In the so-called Egyptian passport, there are, you know, two places where your passport number is mentioned.
09:19One is the machine-readable zone and one is the printed zone.
09:24In one printed zone, it is mentioned the last three digits are 834.
09:29And in the machine-readable zone, the same passport numbers, last three digits become 884.
09:36I have not seen any passport until today, where in the same passport, you have two separate passport numbers.
09:42The third and very important point.
09:44In the so-called, you know, Egyptian passport, Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife's nationality is named as Egyptian.
09:52But the passport does not belong to the country of Egypt.
09:55It belongs to the country of Antigua and Babuda.
09:58The other very important point is, while on Twitter, he writes S-A-R-M-A.
10:03Both Himanta Biswa Sarma and his wife use S-H-A-R-M-A in their passport.
10:09A very important point, which Pawan Khera failed to acknowledge.
10:14Ma'am, your time is up. I'll come back to you.
10:16Each and every question has been heard by Mahima Singh.
10:18And we'll put out the counter-charges as graphics as well.
10:21But Mahima Singh, you've been shaking your head vehemently to every charge level by Sanju Verma.
10:24Please answer on all accounts, beginning with the allegation of the age of Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife being fudged on
10:34what the BJP says is a fudged document in terms of a passport.
10:40Well, Preeti, if anybody has lied, it is Himanta Biswa Sarma, the motor-mouth, outgoing chief minister of Assam and
10:48his wife.
10:48And on affidavit, to the people of Assam.
10:51And neither is this channel a court of law, nor is the BJP a judge conducting a trial on us.
10:57We have filed an ECIR.
11:00We have filed an election petition.
11:02We have invoked the laws like Black Money Act 2015.
11:06We have invoked FEMA and PMLA also.
11:10Now we want to see whether these authorities will act.
11:13We know that 99% of cases in this country running, you know, in the ED are on opposition leaders.
11:21We now want to see the speed of action.
11:23Last night, Mr. Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife has filed an FIR.
11:28We have filed an ECIR today.
11:30And I think the allegations are very serious.
11:33Whether the date of birth is correct or not, whether there is a typographical error, whether there is AI involved
11:39or not, is for a court of law to be tried at.
11:42It is not for you and I, after an ECIR has been filed, to actually get into those questions.
11:49This country is run as per the constitution.
11:53Can I hold your clock?
11:55Can I hold your clock?
11:56I'm going to ask our PCI to hold our clock.
11:58But I want to ask you a very quick question, Mahima Singh.
12:00And that question is, you do know, in the court of law, submitting forged or fake documents is perjury.
12:08And that could be a charge leveled on your party, which is already being alleged by the BJP.
12:16Go ahead, Mahima.
12:17Well, as I said, as I said, there is an FIR by the Sarmas, S-A-R-M-A Sarmas,
12:26as per their past voter records and everything, which we have, we have dug it out.
12:31We have all those documents.
12:33So on one end, there is an FIR filed by the Sarmas.
12:37On the other end, there is an ECIR, a much more grave, you know, invocation of law under the, you
12:45know, PMLA and FEMA at Enforcement Directorate.
12:49Let us see how does the procedure, how does the rule of law take its course.
12:54We believe in rule of law.
12:56We know the BJP does not.
12:57We know that forgery, we know that digression, we know that deflection is the core character of the BJP.
13:05I want to bring in Sanju Verma.
13:06Sanju Verma, your final two minutes right now.
13:09The Congress is saying that they were, they are happy to go to court.
13:13They have already filed an Enforcement Case Information Report, which is an ESIR in this case.
13:21Your own party member's wife has filed an FIR.
13:25Let it be investigated.
13:29You know, Preeti, let's just get one thing very clear.
13:33Rahul Gandhi's basic DNA is 9-11 politics.
13:37Shoot and school.
13:38He made reckless allegations about Rafal.
13:40He had to, with folded hands, apologize after the Supreme Court castigated Rahul Gandhi.
13:46Rahul Gandhi made reckless allegations about the book, which he said he had access to.
13:52And then, General M.M. Narav, the former army chief, said,
13:56this book is not published.
13:58Even Penguin Rankum said the book is not available in public domain.
14:01Rahul Gandhi made allegations, then 9-11.
14:04What does Pawan Khaira do?
14:05Tapaswi Khaira, who's desperate for a Rajya Sabha seat.
14:12You have copies, pasted and photoshopped one passport belonging to a man called Ashraf Abel Samad Hussain,
14:22whose passport was lost.
14:24And you photoshopped that and converted it into a UAE passport belonging to Himanta Sarma's wife.
14:31Then there is a passport belonging to a lady in Egypt called Nihad Ibrahim.
14:37What did you do?
14:38You superimposed Nihad Ibrahim's credentials onto a very shoddy, copy-paste job and said,
14:46Himanta's wife also has an Egyptian passport.
14:49And if you look at Gaurav Gogoi's recent tweets, now he's saying,
14:53oh, we are not saying that Himanta's wife has a UAE or an Egyptian passport.
14:58We are talking of a golden visa.
15:00So basically, Gaurav Gogoi had himself turned 180 degrees in less than 24 hours.
15:06Pawan Khaira, be ready.
15:08Like you had apologized with folded hands after calling Prime Minister Modi's father as Narendra Gautam Das Modi.
15:15And then going to the Supreme Court, you had brought your asses.
15:19Oh, it's going to be a guilty.
15:30Okay, I'm going to come back to you, Sanju Verma, and I will ask you the question again,
15:36because you were speaking about reckless allegations till date.
15:39There has been no proof that has been given by Mr. Himanta Biswasarma on Gaurav Gogoi's wife's alleged links with
15:45the ISI.
15:46So was that a reckless allegation?
15:48We'll come back to that.
15:49But solid points that have been raised, Mahima Singh.
15:52You have one minute to clear the points by Sanju Verma,
15:55where she's talked point by point on what is the allegations of forgery by your party.
16:03It's intriguing, Preeti, when you say she has responded point by point, I'm sorry to say,
16:09but I couldn't hear anything except a flustered rhetoric from the BJP spokesperson, name calling,
16:17you know, personal attacks, exactly, you know, straight out of the BJP playbook.
16:23And I do not get astonished at that at all.
16:26In fact, my sympathies with her, because I know it's a difficult time for them as state of Assam,
16:32as people of Assam see the truth.
16:33But what you ask me about forgery and, you know, the rest of the questions,
16:38I think right from the first minute on your show,
16:40I have given out very substantial facts about the, you know, course of action we have taken.
16:48You see, the BJP's usual response would have been,
16:50so go file an FIR, so go take the legal recourse.
16:54Now, well, we have taken the legal recourse and we have done it so in a very befitting manner.
16:59So let the law take its course.
17:01Let, whether there's a forgery or not, be detourable.
17:05Okay, so, okay, let the law take its course, is what the Congress says.
17:09But Sanju Verma, please answer my question.
17:10Where is the proof substantiating Gaurav Gogoi's wife is an ISI agent?
17:16You know, Preeti, each time Mahima Singh says,
17:19oh, I feel pity for the BJP spokesperson, I feel pity for Sanju Verma.
17:23She said the same thing.
17:25You know, I feel pity for the BJP, they will not win Maharashtra.
17:28Congress was routed in Maharashtra.
17:30The same Mahima Singh came and said,
17:32oh, BJP will not win Haryana for a third time.
17:34Congress won.
17:35Mahima Singh had a nice, big, fat omelet on her face.
17:38Congress lost Haryana.
17:40The same Mahima Singh,
17:41oh, BJP will never win Delhi.
17:45It is the Congress which will come to power.
17:47Thanks to Mahima Singh and her big, motor mouth blabbering narrative,
17:50the Congress won zero seats in Delhi.
17:53So, Mahima Singh, keep your pity to yourself.
17:56On the 4th of May,
17:58the BJP-led NDA will come back to power in Assam for the third time in a row
18:02and Gaurav Gogoi and his British passport-holding wife,
18:07Elizabeth Colman,
18:09who worked as an ISI asset of Ali Taukir Sheikh,
18:14will have a lot to explain.
18:16Okay, but now it sounds like two people
18:18making unsubstantiated charges against each other.
18:20Where is,
18:21what the BJP has just leveled charges against Gaurav Gogoi's wife,
18:25there is no proof.
18:26Right now, where the Congress is,
18:28the charges they've leveled against Imanta Biswa Sarma's wife,
18:31well,
18:32you might say there's proof,
18:33but we haven't seen it, Mahima.
18:34When we see it,
18:35okay, I'm gonna,
18:37that's for the both of you to decide,
18:39whether or not there is a difference or no difference.
18:40But for us,
18:42as journalistic inquisition is concerned,
18:45they both seem unsubstantiated
18:46till the time one sees proof.
18:48With that,
18:49thank you both ladies for joining us.
18:51I'm gonna quickly,
18:52before we get into a break,
18:54and it's good news coming in from the parliament.
18:57Rarely have we seen this,
18:58a landmark moment in Indian politics.
19:01Menaka Guruswami has taken oath as a Rajya Sabha MP,
19:04becoming India's first open,
19:06openly gay parliamentarian.
19:09A leading voice behind the historic reading down
19:11of Section 377,
19:13her entry into parliament,
19:14marks a powerful step forward for representation,
19:18inclusion,
19:18and the evolving face of India's democracy.
19:21It's important to celebrate moments like this, viewers,
19:24because it is important,
19:26because somewhere down the line,
19:29it brings in more voices
19:31from across the spectrum in India
19:34to the Indian parliament.
19:49I, Dr. Menaka Guruswami,
19:53having been elected a member of the Council of States,
19:58do swear in the name of God
20:00that I will bear true faith and allegiance
20:03to the Constitution of India
20:05as by law established,
20:07that I will uphold the sovereignty
20:10and integrity of India,
20:12and that I will faithfully discharge the duty
20:16upon which I am about to enter.
20:19Amen.
20:19Amen.
20:20Amen.
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