West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left the Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday in a state of anger, alleging that her microphone was silenced and she was restricted to speaking for only five minutes. Banerjee, the sole Chief Minister from an opposition-ruled state present at the meeting in Delhi, asserted that her microphone was muted when she raised the matter of West Bengal being deprived of central funds.
The Trinamool Congress leader stated that he was granted a mere five minutes to speak, while Chandrababu Naidu was allotted 20 minutes. The chief ministers of Assam, Goa, and Chhattisgarh spoke for approximately 10 to 12 minutes. In response, the Trinamool Congress chief expressed his dissatisfaction and subsequently left the event.
Banerjee accused the government of showing bias towards NDA allies and called the decision to mute her mic an insult to Bengal and all regional parties. She emphasized the importance of cooperative federalism and expressed her disappointment at being stopped from speaking. However, government sources refuted her claim, stating that her speaking time had ended and that she had been accommodated as the seventh speaker at the request of the West Bengal government.
She reiterated her demand to abolish the Niti Aayog and reinstate the Planning Commission, emphasizing that the former lacks financial powers. She urged for either granting financial powers to the Niti Aayog or reviving the Planning Commission. Besides opposition chief ministers, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also chose not to attend the Niti Aayog meeting in New Delhi. The state’s representation was led by Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. Opposition-ruled states decided to boycott the meeting in protest against what they deemed a biased Union Budget. They claimed that the Budget showed favoritism towards Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, both governed by NDA allies JD(U) and TDP.