Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan finally expressed regret for his remarks on the family of slain National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

"I am sad that Sandeep's family was hurt by my remark. I apologise for that," Achuthanandan said at a press conference at Thiruvananthapuram.

"If my comments have hurt Major Unnikrishnan's family, I'm sorry and I regret it. But now the Opposition is trying to misinterpret it. So I thought of giving a clarification," he said.

New Delhi, Dec. 3 : Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan has apologized to the family of slain commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

Under immense pressure from all the political parties and general public, Achuthanandan said “I deeply regret my comments.” “If my comments have hurt Major Unnikrishnan’s family, I’m sorry,” he added.

Cutting across party lines, all major political parties of the country had demanded anunconditional apology from Achuthanandan.

Earlier, Achuthanandan spoke before the Kerala Assembly, today, amidst immense pressure to take back his comments, he said that his comments were misinterpreted and he was quoted out of context.

New Delhi/Hyderabad/Karnataka, Dec 2 (ANI): Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav demanded Kerala Chief Minister V. S Achuthanandan’s resignation here today.

“It is a very serious thing what Kerala''s Chief Minister has said and I will request the leadership that they should ask Achuthanandan to quit,” said Lalu.

He was reacting to an objectionable remark reportedly made by Kerala CM, after being snubbed by bereaved Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s father, when he visited his house in Bangalore on November 30.

At the inauguration of 'Ezhuthuvilakku' - the three-day state-level workshop for young and upcoming writers - Kerela Chief Minister, V. S. Achuthanandan, expressed his concern over Malayalam not being conferred the classical language status by the Centre, despite the fact that Malayalam had a rich literary tradition.

Urging the Union government to provide its support for research into various aspects of literature in all languages in the country, Achuthanandan said Malayalam should receive the same consideration as Kannada and Telugu got in this respect.