"What happened yesterday should be condemned because such behaviour towards Chief Minister of any state is worthy of criticism and I condemn it," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath told reporters.
Terming the incident as "extremely unfortunate", I&B Minister Manish Tewari said, "Whether it is our friends from the Left, or our friends in Trinamool Congress, or political parties across the length and breadth of this country, everybody needs to exercise restraint".
"As someone who has grown up during the street-fighting years of the student movement during the decades of the 70s and 80s, I worry that we should not go back to those days," he said.
Asked to comment on Banerjee's remark that Delhi is not a safe place, Tewari said, "It is not necessary to comment on the views or reaction of every Chief Minister".
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"Whatever happened between the Left and the TMC, neither central government nor the UPA has anything to do with this. It is a very sad thing. We have already expressed our regret that Sudipto Dutta - an FSI activist - is no more with us," he said.
When asked if there could be difficulty in the smooth functioning of Parliament due to the incident, Nath said, "We'll see".
Protesters from CPI-M and SFI ambushed the Chief Minister and other ministers, including Finance Minister Amit Mitra, when they arrived at the Planing Commission complex for annual state plan discussion yesterday.