Purge criminal elements from Gujarat administration: CPI

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) The CPI today said it did not favour imposition of President's Rule in Gujarat after a spate of fake encounters claiming 21 lives came to light, but wanted the Election Commission to weed out ''criminal and subversive'' elements from the administration there.

In an impassioned appeal to the EC to restore 'Rule of Law' in the western state, CPI Floor leader in the Lok Sabha Gurudas Dasgupta said the move was necessiated at a time when ''people at large had started losing confidence in the democratic system because of growing criminalisation and communalisation of politics.'' Addressing a press conference here, he said that the EC is ''all powerful'' and can purge the subversive elements from the Gujarat administration as it has already done in the four ''difficult states of Jammu&Kashmir, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh'' when elections were held there. ''The good work of the EC not only got it the Magsaysay Award but also world-wide recognition,'' he noted.

He charged the Modi government with taking ''recourse to fake encounters for political purposes and with an eye on state assembly polls due towards the end of the year.'' ''Last time, Mr Narendra Modi played the politics of communal riots,''he said and called on the EC to take fresh stock of the communal situation and ''stem the rot.'' ''The EC can take much firmer action,'' he asserted.

In response to a query, Mr Dasgupta said he had not spoken for the need for imposing President's Rule in the state, but ''Mr Modi should have himself asked for a CBI enquiry into the fake encounters that had attracted the attenion of the media and the nation as a whole.'' ''But since he well knows how the fake encounters had been masterminded, he is keeping silent on the issue. In fact, this is all preparatory ground for the assembly polls,'' the CPI leader maintained.

The veteran Left leader also urged Parliament and political parties to come forward to prevent entry of criminal elements into politics.

UNI