Author: News
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: August 22, 2002
The Election Commission's decision
to delay assembly polls in Gujarat will accentuate the 'communal divide'
in the state, according to K.P.S.Gill, former security advisor to Chief
Minister Narendra Modi, reports UNI.
The Election Commission's decision
is a dangerous one and taken on basis of exaggerated accounts of conditions
of the riot-affected and people living in the rehabilitation camps." Gill
who was former director general of Punjab Police, said.
The supercop described the situation
in Gujarat as 'absolutely normal' and said that when an 'avatar' comes
from Delhi, there is a tendency to exaggerate things in order to get maximum
relief.
"There has been no major incident
of rioting or arsoning in the past three months. Stray incidents
do happen, But the situation is fast returning to normal," he said.
Gill, who was instrumental in bringing
to an end terrorism in Punjab, pointed out that he was in Gujarat for about
two months while the EC's visit was of a few days.
"How could the Commission jump to
such a conclusion? Did elections not take place even when hundreds
of Sikhs had been massacred in 1984?" he asked.
"Did the Commission visit the interiors,
the hundreds of villages have the details of what's happening in each of
the villages. It seems that then EC's decision is politically motivated,"
Gill lamented.
When asked that people were heard
and seen expressing their grievances to Chief Election Commissioner J.
M. Lyngdoh, Gill said, "The tendency to exaggerate things happens because,
as they know, only 10 per cent of the relief will reach them. The
tendency i8s to exaggerate at least ten times," he added.
The former DG said that he was given
the task to stop the violence, arsoning and rioting in the state. "Had
I not performed there, I would not come back here. I have a tract
record where I have always accomplished the mission assigned to me," Gill
said.