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Gill's remarks irresponsible: Cong.

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI JULY 10. The ``super-cop'', K.P.S. Gill's advocacy of early elections in Gujarat in his capacity as Security Adviser to the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has evoked criticism from both political circles and civil society.

The Congress today described his observations as "irresponsible and ill-timed'', adding it was yet another statement from the Gujarat administration that would fuel apprehensions among the people. Clubbing Mr. Gill's statement with a similar advocacy of early elections by the Gujarat Governor, Sundar Singh Bhandari, during a recent visit to the capital, the party spokesman, Anand Sharma, said that senior functionaries of the State were encroaching upon what is strictly the jurisdiction of the Election Commission.

Also, according to the Congress, Mr. Gill's submission — in an interview to a television channel — that early elections would end the climate of fear and violence was testimony to the fact that the situation in the State was far from normal.

The BJP's "indefensible defence'' of Mr. Modi, Mr. Sharma said, "unmasks for now and the future the true face, real intent and agenda of the BJP and its sibling organisations''.

As to whether the party preferred an early election, Mr. Sharma said the Congress was prepared for elections as and when the Election Commission deemed it fit to hold them.

Describing Mr. Gill's comments as "gratuitous'', the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust said it was "wholly inappropriate for him to make an explicitly political comment on a subject that fell outside the purview of his assignment''. Maintaining that the situation in Gujarat was not conducive for the exercise of rational choice by voters, the signatories to a statement said holding elections under prevailing conditions would be a "travesty of democracy''.

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