Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Before she left Kolkata to attend the NITI Ayog meeting, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerji had announced that she would leave the event midway if she were “not heard.” That’s precisely what she did on Saturday.
Having come prepared and claiming that she was given “only five minutes”, she stormed out of the NITI Aayog meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Friday itself, she had set the stage for her Saturday show, demanding that the NITI Aayog should be disbanded as it had no financial powers.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who had earlier announced to attend, however, did not turn up, apparently under Congress pressure with which he shares power in the tribal-dominated state.
The Ninth Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog got off to a rocky start as Banerjee left it soon, alleging that she wasn’t allowed to speak and her microphone was turned off, which was “insulting”.
“I have come out boycotting the meeting. Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak, and CMs of Assam, Goa, and Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is unfair. I said why did you stop me, why are you discriminating. I am attending the meeting, you should be happy, instead of that you are giving more scope to your party, your government. This is not only an insult to Bengal but also to all regional parties. This is unfair,” she told reporters, according to the media reports.
The West Bengal CM said she had urged the Centre not to discriminate against state governments. Despite being the only non-NDA opposition member participating, she felt it was insulting that she was not allowed to speak longer.
She reiterated her stance that NITI Aayog had no financial powers, so either those powers should be accorded to the institution or the Planning Commission, replaced by NITI Aayog in 2014, be reinstated.
“From the opposition side, only I am representing here, and attending this meeting because of the greater interest that cooperative federalism should be strengthened. Even the Budget also has a political bias. I said, “Why are you discriminating against other states?” NITI Aayog has no financial powers, how will it work? Give it financial powers or bring back the Planning Commission,” the TMC leader added.
Many INDIA bloc chief ministers, including MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala), Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), and all three Congress chief ministers—Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) and Revanth Reddy (Telangana)—boycotted the meeting.
They criticized the Centre for a “biased” Budget that allegedly favored the NDA’s Bihar and Andhra Pradesh allies. Stalin said the Budget for FY25, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, appeared like a ‘vengeful act’ against the states and people who boycotted the BJP, accusing the Centre of continuously disregarding Tamil Nadu.
The meeting’s main objective was to make India a developed nation by 2047 and aimed at fostering collaborative participation between the Centre and the states, to better improve the quality of life in both rural and urban areas.
The Governing Council, which is the apex body of NITI Aayog, consists of all state chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories, and several Union ministers. PM Modi is the Chairman of NITI Aayog.