Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday said his “heart was hurt very deeply” at the treatment allegedly meted out to him at the Durga Puja Carnival on Red Road on October 11.

The governor said: “What has hurt me and hurt my heart very deeply is the treatment meted out…. For four hours, not one second, the first servant (Dhankhar describes himself so) was shown on television. I am not untouchable. You can’t have that kind of intolerance….

“For four hours and more, I was there. And your first servant was totally blacked out. This is unusual kind of censorship. How can you black out a person holding this position after inviting him? This is unheard of. You will never find it anywhere else.

“Someone called me to tell, ‘Sir, it is reminiscent of Emergency’. But even then, media rose to the occasion. I will request my media friends, why were you silent for three days when the whole world was saying it? People were calling me. Parliamentarians were visiting me. They were expressing their deep anguish…. If media will not show its spine, it will be a sad day for our democratic governance.

“I am the one who has suffered…. Number of live events were there. I could not see a single live event….

“What happened has put me to shame…. I am deeply hurt and disturbed. That insult was not to me, that insult was to the culture of West Bengal. The insult was to every person in West Bengal. They will never digest such an insult being meted out to a person holding this position.

“It has taken me three days to recover from this injury to my heart…. I don’t know why they did it, who did it.… This bad taste in my mouth has been created by people who perhaps do not have the mindset, the large heart, that people of West Bengal have.”