India, May 10 -- Riju Dutta, recently suspended from the Trinamool Congress whose national spokesperson he was, issued an unconditional public apology on X on Sunday to Uttar Pradesh IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma - a man he had attacked on camera just weeks ago, on behalf of his party. The party led by Mamata Banerjee has since lost to the BJP, the ruling party of UP and the Centre.

Dutta's apology, delivered in a video statement, came with a caveat; he said he was acting on the advice of "senior BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh" and his legal counsel. He stressed, more than once, that the original remarks were not personal, and that the video in which he attacked Sharma was recorded at the TMC headquarters, in his capacity as national spoke...