You can kill me, but can't stop me: Didi

SFI activists attack Mamata, her FM outside Yojana Bhavan

New Delhi(PTI): West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her finance minister Amit Mitra were on Tuesday the target of the ire of CPM and its students' wing activists with protesters manhandling the minister outside the Planning Commission here.

A group of about 150 protesters from CPM and SFI ambushed the chief minister and other ministers including Mitra when they arrived at the Planing Commission complex around 3.45 pm for annual state plan discussion. Banerjee, who was advised by police not to get down from her car and drive inside, however, chose to walk through the slogan-shouting and placard-wielding crowd into the building.

While the chief minister was immediately shielded by policemen, it was left to Mitra's lot to face the anger of the activists who were protesting the death of a SFI member Sudipto Ghosh in police custody in Kolkata last week. As SFI and CPI(M) members chanted "Mamata Banerjee hai hai (Mamata down down), TMC hai hai, Hatyari Mamata sharm karo (have shame, killer Mamata)", an agitated chief minister walked into the building shouting that "this is uncivilised behaviour". "You can kill me, but can't stop me," she screamed at the protesters.

The 65-year-old finance minister was pushed and jostled around as he tried to enter the Yojna Bhawan building. A woman protester thumped him twice on his chest and his kurta was torn in the melee.

An angry Banerjee later vented her anger at minister of state for planning Rajiv Shukla and deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. "You have created a new precedent here. My minister was assaulted. This is scandalous. Can you stop development of this state like this...Delhi is not safe," she told them.

"You know why they are protesting. I can mobilize 10 lakh people and bring them to Delhi. They don't want development of West Bengal," she said. Losing her cool and flying into a fit of rage, Mamata Banerjee said, "We were not allowed to enter the Planning Commission.

Ours is a peaceful protest: SFI

The Left will never come back in West Bengal, it is dirty politics." A Montek praised West Bengal for achieving a high growth rate of 13 per cent. It has done well in the development of the social welfare sector. Development had picked momentum, he said.

Mamata Banerjee was happy to see such praise lavished on her. She said West Bengal achieved development despite the financial difficulties of the State. West Bengal was pushed into a debt trap be the previous Left Front Government, and despite her best efforts, the State could not manage a special package from the Centre, to tide over the crisis. Yet, the State has managed to perform exceedingly well, she said.

SFI leader Ritabrata Banerjee said, "Our protest is to show Mamata Banerjee that Sudipto Gupta's death was not a petty matter. People are deeply concerned about what is happening in West Bengal." SFI has alleged that 22-year-old Gupta died after he was beaten up by the police which has maintained that he was killed in an accident. Banerjee had termed the incident as "unfortunate" but later called it a "petty" matter, drawing criticism from the Left.

The SFI activists denied there was any violence. Ritabrata Banerjee said, "It was a militant but peaceful protest. We did not manhandle anyone or tore their clothes. We want a judicial probe into Sudipto's murder. We will protest everywhere Mamata goes."

CPI (M) leader Nilotpal Basu opposed violence in such protests but said Banerjee "should accept that these are public outpourings against the manner in which the students are treated under the Trinamool rule."

"She kept on saying it is a small and petty matter and refused to order a judicial probe.... Do you think that after all this, the students will shower petals on her," Basu asked.

Mamata ill, A Mitra hospitalised

New Delhi (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fell ill and was administered oxygen while her Finance Minister Amit Mitra was put under observation in AIIMS for some medical tests, hours after they were heckled by an angry mob of SFI activists outside the Planning Commission office here.

Sources close to Banerjee said she had cancelled her meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the evening as she was not feeling well.A She was administered oxygen for sometime in the evening in her house in South Avenue, while Mitra was taken to AIIMS for some medical tests, they said.

Mitra has been admitted to the hospital for the night and will be discharged on Wednesday after some tests, sources added.