May reopen NC Hills scam if people want, says Gogoi

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 25: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said that he might reopen the multi-crore-rupee NC Hill scam if the people of the State wanted so. He, however, made it clear that he was not going to reopen the scam on his own as that would be a futile exercise now. “All office documents related to the scam are in order now,” he said.

Gogoi said this today while talking to newsmen in the city. A few days back, Gogoi was on record telling a TV channel that he himself had given clues to former minister Himanta Biswa Sarma so as to bail him out of the NC Hills scam. In the backdrop of such an utterance from the Chief Minister, reporters today asked him if he would reopen the NC Hills scam.    

Gogoi alleged a tactical understanding between the BJP and the AIUDF, said that both the parties were spreading radicalism. “It’s the Congress that doesn’t support radicalism,” he said, and termed Himanta Biswa Sarma and AIUDF supremo Badruddin Ajmal as ‘Togadias’ of Assam, spreading radicalism. He ruled out any pre-poll alliance of the Congress with any party in the state, though he left the option open for a post-poll scerio. “Before the 2011 Assembly election s in Assam, it was Himanta Biswa Sarma who brokered for an understanding between the AIUDF and the Congress. How come Sarma become a Hindutva leader now?” Gogoi questioned, and added: “The AIUDF had all along been projecting itself as a secular party, but it has exposed its true colour when it has appealed to the Muslims to be united against the Hindus during the Assembly elections in Assam. The AIUDF is also a commul party as the BJP is.”

Gogoi reiterated his criticism of Prime Minister rendra Modi’s statements against Dr Manmohan Singh during his recent Assam tour. “No PM has ever slammed or criticized his predecessor as Modi has done in case of Dr Singh. We have never shown disrespect to Atal Behari Vajpayee, rather we have always acknowledged whatever help we received from him,” Gogoi said.

On the recent leakage of a report based on a letter to have been written by former Prime Minister Jawharlal Nehrua to a Briitsh top official stating Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as a ‘war crimil’, Gogoi said: “The report is not based on fact. There’s no evidence to buttress the report.”

Strange though it may sound, Gogoi today claimed that the Gas Cracker Project at Lepetkota is not mentioned in the Assam Accord, so is IIT Guwahati. “The gas cracker project was given by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh implemented it. IIT Guwahati is also not mentioned in the Assam Accord. Show me, if there’s any mention on the IIT or the Gas cracker project. If there’s mention of them, I’ll rectify my statement,” Gogoi said.

Modi asking the state government to submit its report card of 15 years of power in Assam, Gogoi said the state government would come out with details on February 7. “We are accountable to the people of Assam, and we will give in details what the UPA governments and NDA governments gave the state. Let Modi also give an account of what he has done for Assam,” Gogoi said.