Himanta: Will file defamation suit against Rahul

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that he will file a defamation suit against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for a social media post suggesting that the former had links with Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani.

Addressing a press conference, Sarma said steps will be taken in this regard after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Assam on April 14 is over.

On Saturday, Gandhi had posted a tweet which read: “They hide the truth, that’s why they mislead everyday!”

“The question remains the same - whose ₹20,000 crore benami money is in Adani’s companies?” Gandhi asked in the tweet in Hindi, sharing an image with ‘Adani’ written as an acronym of sorts with letters of the names of the leaders. He cited the names of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kiran Kumar Reddy and Anil K Antony in his tweet. Responding to it, Sarma had replied that he will meet Gandhi “in the court of law”.

On Sunday, Sarma said: “Whatever Rahul Gandhi has tweeted, it is defamatory. Once Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Assam on April 14 is over, we will respond to it and a defamation case will be lodged in Guwahati.”

“Neither Rahul Gandhi nor Congress is afraid of Sarma’s threat. If the CM can file a case, we can also take legal recourse. Sarma may show ignorance about his own corruption and scams his name have been linked to, but people of Assam know the truth,” said Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah.

Sarma said that he doesn’t want to discuss the issue at the moment “as the state is gearing up to celebrate Bohag Bihu and steps will be taken after April 14—the first day of Assamese New Year.”

Taking a jibe at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Sarma said he is still waiting for an invitation from him to ‘demystify’ how the Delhi government can provide 1.2 million jobs when the sanctioned strength of government staff for the national capital is only around 1,50,000.

“I want to ask him that question. If Assam government has a sanctioned strength of 400,000 employees, how can I give appointments to 1.2 million people? I want to unravel that mystery,” said Sarma.

Earlier, on April 2, Kejriwal while addressing a rally in Guwahati had claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government had given jobs to 1.2 million people in the past seven to eight years.

(With PTI inputs)