Saturday saw West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walk out of a NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing that though she was the only opposition representative there, she was rudely cut off mid-speech. She said that while other CMs were given time to make their points, she was cut off after just five minutes into her speech.
The government said she had run out of time for speaking. She termed the act disrespectful and announced that she would not attend any further meetings. She said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes while other chief ministers of Assam, Goa, and Chhattisgarh spoke for 10 to 12 minutes, whereas she was cut off after five minutes of speaking.
Feeling frustrated, she said she had come to the meeting to chant the slogan of cooperative federalism. She said that it was her concern that how could the budget of BJP-led central government be politically directed and biased towards some states while ignoring others.
The PIB fact check rubbished the claims of Banerjee and said that she was not muted but her time to speak had run out. Sources said that based on alphabetical order Banerjee was supposed to speak after lunch but she was pre-poned to seventh position on request from her government due to her early departure needs.
She said that in the meeting, Banerjee told the Centre that it was pursuing political vendetta and the budgetary allocations were not fair. She further said that NITI Aayog had no financial powers and either it should be given financial powers or the earlier Planning Commission that used to look after state planning should be reinstated.
He referred to the suspension of MGNREGA and Awas Yojana funds to West Bengal for the past three years and asked how the country could run effectively when such discrimination continued.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin came out in full support of Banerjee's statement, saying that the way opposition leaders are treated is an affront to the concept of cooperative federalism. He added that in a democracy, dialogue and respect were very important.
A few chief ministers from the bloc of INDIA decided to boycott the meeting, led by Stalin of DMK; Pinarayi Vijayan of CPI-M; Bhagwant Mann of Aam Aadmi Party; Siddaramaiah of Congress; Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh; Revanth Reddy of Telangana; and Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, over various issues relating to the recent Union Budget.
The ninth Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog is chaired by Modi to strategize on ways and means to make India a developed nation by 2047.
Read also | FM Sitharaman Confirms Continued State Funding in Union Budget
