West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday left NITI Aayog meeting midway and accused the Centre of step-motherly treatment with West Bengal. NITI Aayog’s 9th Governing Council meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all state chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories, and several Union ministers.
She said that she came out boycotting the meeting. She claimed that AP CM Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak, CMs of Assam, Goa and Chhattisghar spoke for 10-12 minutes. But, she lamented that she was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. She lamented that this is unfair.
Speaking to the reporters, Banerjee said, “…I said you (central government) should not discriminate against state governments. I wanted to speak but could only speak for 5 minutes. People before me spoke for 10-20 minutes. I was the only one from the Opposition participating but still, I was not allowed to speak. This is insulting…”
“…I was speaking, my mic was stopped. I said why did you stop me, why are you discriminating. I am attending the meeting. You should be happy instead of giving more scope to your party your government. Only I am there from the opposition and you are stopping me from speaking…This is not only the insult to Bengal but also to all regional parties..,” she added.
She further said that “no government works like this” and that when a government is in power, it has to take care of everyone. Chief ministers of almost all opposition-ruled states including Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin, Telangana CM Revanth Reddy, Karnataka CM Siddaramayya and Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann boycotted the meeting alleging the budget was discriminatory towards non-BJP ruled states.
Mamata Banerjee was the only opposition Chief Minister, who had earlier confirmed her participation in the meeting. But cautiously she had said she would walk out of the meeting if she wasn’t allowed to speak.
