Speaking at a gathering organised by the party's minority cell here, Mamata Banerjee vowed to protect the interests of the minorities and called upon the prime minister to ``safeguard these hapless people against whom conspiracy is being hatched''.

Wearing a black badge, Banerjee said she was committed to ``take care of the minorities not with an eye on the vote banks,'' and described the demolition episode as a ``disgraceful incident and a blot on the country's secular character''.

``We will continue to observe this day as Black Day every year and will not cow down to any pressure,'' an agitated Banerjee told the gathering. The mosque demolition was``a got up game which needs to be seriously looked into.'' Dismissing suggestions that her observing Black Day was aimed at ``appeasing Muslims'' for deriving political benefits, Banerjee said her party's election manifesto, released last February, mentioned the Babri tragedy as the most heinous one after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

``We called for referring the case to the Supreme Court so that no political party can make it a political issue,'' she said, urging the prime minister to ``accept and implement'' whatever be the apex court's order in the case. ``Besides, the prime minister should give a guarantee against recurrence of such incidents,'' Banerjee said.

Reiterating her resolve not to join the Cabinet, Banerjee said she had repeatedly spurned several offers to do so, but promised to extend all support to the ruling coalition from outside. ``If we accept ministership, we will not be able to raise our voice of protest. So we decided to support the government externally. However, our supportshould not be construed as our commitment not to protest against injustice and atrocities,'' she said.

Critical of the BJP's move to introduce Saraswati vandana and vande mataram in schools, Banerjee said ``this should be left to the discretion of individual faiths''.

She also said that she would not relent in her struggle against religious fundamentalism, and exhorted political parties ``not to exploit the neo-secular card to get votes''.