The dismissal of the Harish Rawat government and the imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand "is a shameless assault on democracy", the CPI-M said on Monday.A Communist Party of India-Marxist statement also called it a blatant violation of constitutional norms. "The fact that the action has taken place a day before the Chief Minister (Harish Rawat) was to test his majority on the floor of the assembly makes this intervention patently illegal and unconstitutional."The imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand and the earlier episode in Arunachal Pradesh shows that the (Narendra) Modi government is utilising Article 356 (of the constitution) to topple governments run by the opposition. This should not be allowed. "While the basic remedy is to scrap Article 356 itself from the constitution, the Supreme Court should take up the (Uttarakhand) matter on a priority basis," it said.