Kolkata, Apr 10: Expressing shock over the "premeditated assault" on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state ministers in New Delhi, Governor M.K. Narayanan Wednesday asked the CPI-M politburo for a public apology.
"The shocking premeditated assault on the chief minister, the finance minister and senior ministers of West Bengal in the national capital is an extremely unfortunate incident and is a blot on India's cherished democratic values. The incident deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms," Narayanan said in a statement.
Stating that the incident was "unprecedented in India's modern history", he said those "responsible for the attack and their instigators have forfeited the right to function within a democratic framework.
"This kind of attack on a democratically elected chief minister, finance minister and their cabinet colleagues is unprecedented in India's modern history and is serious enough to warrant a public apology by the polit bureau of the CPI-Marxist," he said.
The statement comes a day after Banerjee, Finance Minister Amit Mitra and others were heckled by the SFI, the students arm of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, outside the Planning Commission building in New Delhi.
The students pushed Mitra around and also hit him with a flagpole. He later complained of chest pain and was hospitalised at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Banerjee complained of breathlessness later and cancelled her scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The SFI was protesting against the death of its leader Sudipta Gupta in Kolkata in police custody last week. Banerjee dismissed the death as a "petty" and "small" matter.
Since then, the CPI-M has alleged that many of its offices have come under attack in West Bengal and its leaders and cadres beaten up. The Marxists have blamed the Trinamool for the violence.
The governor requested the Trinamool and other parties of the state to maintain peace.
"Meanwhile, I urge the Trinamool Congress, as also all others in the state of West Bengal, to maintain calm and not give way to their emotions," the statement added.
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