On Saturday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting. She alleged that she was not allowed to speak at the meeting. While Nirmala Sitharaman and others have stepped in to refute Mamata’s allegations, Mamata Banerjee provided further explanations after reaching Kolkata.
Ms. Bannerjee said, “They insulted me. I am a senior politician. In the entire meeting, I was the sole voice of the opposition. They tried to stifle that voice. So, I did the right thing by boycotting.”
The Chief Minister arrived in Kolkata around 4:45 PM. Abhishek Banerjee accompanied her. In response to journalists’ questions at the airport, she said, “Before me, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, spoke. He spoke for about 20 minutes. When I started speaking for 5 minutes, Rajnath Singh started ringing the bell.”
According to Mamata, “Rajnath was presiding over the meeting. On one side sat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and on the other side was Home Minister Amit Shah. Rajnath Singh was surely instructed to start pressing the bell within five minutes. They said I would be allowed to speak for 6-7 minutes, but they didn’t even give that. If they had given 7 minutes, I could have completed my speech. But the way he started ringing the bell was annoying and insulting. It meant, “Stop now. Stop, stop.” So I said, if you won’t let me speak, what’s the point of staying? I’m leaving.”
As Mamata Banerjee was expressing her dissatisfaction, Abhishek stood aside with a stern face, wearing a slate-colored large check shirt and sporting a two-day stubble.
The Chief Minister further stated, “no Chief Minister from any non-BJP administered state attended the meeting. I was the only one representing the opposition. I was highlighting the injustices faced by everyone, including Bengal. The central government owes us ₹1.71 lakh crore. This year, that amount will increase even more.”
Mamata Banerjee added that she has no objection if any state receives more funds. But their strategy is that only BJP and their allies will receive money, while the others will not. They don’t understand that by crippling the states in this manner, they are crippling the entire country.
During the brief time she had at the meeting, Ms. Bannerjee also raised the issue of Bangladesh. She said, “West Bengal is a stakeholder in the water treaty between India and Bangladesh. I told them that they cannot do anything without informing the state. They are renewing the Farakka agreement, but Bengal is not being informed. One condition of the Farakka agreement was that ₹700 crore would be given to the state for flood control in North Bengal. What happened to that?”
The Chief Minister asserted, due to the shared rivers between Bhutan and India, a water treaty with Bhutan is necessary. She noted, “Although this was not part of my written speech, I addressed it during the meeting.”
When Mamata Banerjee accused the central government, the central ministers immediately began to refute her claims. Journalists then questioned her about this. In response, CM Mamata Banerjee said, “You were not at the meeting. Only the BJP was there. You are just accepting what they want you to believe. They didn’t let me speak. They don’t want to hear the opposition. That’s why I say, I did the right thing by walking out.”
On Saturday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman responded to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegation that she was not allowed to speak and that her microphone was turned off at the NITI Aayog meeting. Nirmala countered by saying that Mamata was lying. She claimed that the meeting’s clock showed Mamata’s allotted speaking time had ended.
Sitharaman responded within hours of Mamata Banerjee’s allegation, which had created a stir in the political circles of the country. She stated that Mamata Banerjee had attended the NITI Aayog meeting, and everyone had listened to her. Each Chief Minister was allotted a specific time to speak, and this was displayed on screens placed on every table.
The Press Information Bureau (PIB), under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, has claimed through a fact check that Mamata Banerjee’s allegations are misleading. The PIB fact check experts stated that the Chief Minister of West Bengal claimed her microphone was turned off during the NITI Aayog’s 9th Governing Council meeting. This claim is #misleading. The clock showed that her speaking time had expired, and no bell was rung to indicate the end of her time.
It was further stated that according to the rules of English alphabetical order, Mamata Banerjee was scheduled to speak after the lunch break. However, she was allotted time as the seventh speaker, as requested by the state government. This arrangement was made because her return time was scheduled immediately after her speaking slot.
