NEW DELHI: In the meeting of NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mamta Banerjee was prevented from speaking. She could not even finish speaking and the mic was turned off. After this, she came out of the meeting in the middle. Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly said in the last few months that the mic of opposition MPs is turned off in Parliament. Will the mic of the Chief Minister also be turned off in the official meeting with the Prime Minister now?
What happened that Mamta Banerjee, who reached the meeting of Niti Aayog in Delhi, got angry and left the meeting in the middle and came out. Whereas Mamta had come to Delhi to attend the meeting of Niti Aayog by taking a different stand from the opposition parties involved in the India Alliance. Mamta was so badly upset with the stand of the commission. She said that she will never attend this meeting again. The whole matter is related to turning off her mic.
After leaving the meeting being held at the cultural center of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mamta Banerjee said, “I have boycotted the meeting. Mamta Banerjee alleges that she was not allowed to speak for more than 5 minutes. Whereas people before her presented their views for 10-20 minutes. But when her turn came, she was stopped from speaking. CM Mamta Banerjee said, “I was speaking, my mic was switched off. I said why did you stop me, why are you discriminating. I am the only one there from the opposition and you are stopping me from speaking… This is an insult not only to Bengal but also to all the regional parties.”
Speaking to reporters, Banerjee said she noticed that the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Goa were allowed to speak for 10-12 minutes but were stopped within five minutes. “I said you have deprived us in the budget and stopped all development schemes for Bengal. For the last three years, 100 days work has stopped in Bengal, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is stopped… everything is stopped including food subsidy. We were supposed to get Rs 1.71 lakh crore in central government funds till last year. We got nothing in this budget too, just zero. That’s all I said and they switched off my mic.
I said ‘Why do you discriminate? Why do you stop me? I am just participating, you should be happy with that. Instead you are giving more opportunities to your party and your government. I am the only one there from the opposition and you are switching off my mic. I don’t believe in this deprivation. I would have done that. That’s why I am leaving.” Mamata Banerjee has once again accused the Centre of discriminating against the states. She said that the Central Government should not discriminate against the state governments. I wanted to speak but I was allowed to speak for only 5 minutes. People spoke for 10-20 minutes before me.
Mamata Banerjee said that ever since the plan of Niti Aayog was made, I have not seen a single work being done, because it has no power. Earlier there was Planning Commission as a Chief Minister… At that time I saw that there was a system.” He said that the Planning Commission should be reinstated by ending the Niti Aayog formed by the Narendra Modi-led government. The Chief Ministers of many opposition-ruled states have boycotted this meeting of the Niti Aayog, alleging discrimination in the budget. The Chief Ministers who boycotted include Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as well as the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab and Delhi governments. Apart from this, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy also decided not to attend the meeting.

This meeting of the Niti Aayog will focus on making India a developed country by the year 2047. The Governing Council is the apex body of the Niti Aayog. It includes the Chief Ministers of all the states, Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories and many Union Ministers. The BJP government, badly affected by Mamata Banerjee’s allegations, has denied her claims in the response issued by the government on Mamata’s allegations. In the 9th Governing Council meeting of the Commission, the mike of the Chief Minister of Bengal was switched off. Her time to speak was over. Her turn to speak would have come after lunch. But on the official request of the West Bengal government, she was included as the 7th speaker, as she had to return early.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is chairing the 9th Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog in the capital. The council, which Modi is the chairman of, includes the Chief Ministers of all the states and the Lieutenant Governors of the Union Territories as well as several Union Ministers. Meanwhile, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Sasmit Patra has supported the decision of the opposition parties to boycott the NITI Aayog meeting and has accused the Center of denying the states their share in the budget.
The official statement said that the vision paper related to developed India will be discussed in this meeting. According to the statement, the objective of this meeting is to promote participatory operation and cooperation between the central and state governments, strengthen the delivery mechanism and enhance the quality of life for both rural and urban population. In the meeting, assurance was also given to look into the recommendations of the third national conference of Chief Secretaries held in December last year. Five major issues were discussed in the meeting

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save