Saturday’s NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stirred up a major controversy as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that she was only allowed to speak for a few minutes and that her mic was turned off.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman have rejected Mamata’s claims, saying that she, like other participants, was given allotted time to speak for their respective states. Leaders of the ruling party also claimed that Mamata’s meltdown was “premeditated.”
The West Bengal chief minister walked out of the meeting in New Delhi following which she said, “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 that you are 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 of Bengal but also of all regional parties.”
The meeting was attended by most BJP and NDA partner-ruled states, excluding Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It was, however, boycotted by the Opposition, making Mamata the only member to attend the meeting.
What has NITI Aayog said?
During a press conference after the meeting, NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said that every chief minister was allotted seven minutes and that the time was displayed on a screen.
After her allotted time was up Mamata said, “I would like to speak for a few more minutes but I would not,” Subrahmanyam said.
Furthermore, she had requested her turn to speak before lunchtime as she had to depart for Kolkata and so Mamata’s slot was adjusted accordingly.
“The chief minister of West Bengal had made a request to be given a turn before lunchtime. I’m just putting facts on the ground, no interpretations. It was a very clear request from their side because normally we would have gone alphabetically. We adjusted and the Defence Minister actually called her in just before Gujarat. So she made her statement,” the CEO said.
Who were the absentees?
The NITI Aayog meeting had 26 participants and 10 abstentees. The absentee chief ministers were from the following states:
“We had a lot of last-minute dropouts, I have speeches of some states who had not participated- Jharkhand and Puducherry. Not all have dropped out for boycott reasons,” Subrahmanyam said.
‘Mamata left in a jiffy’
Meanwhile, many chief ministers who participated in the meeting told News18, “Once Mamata’s time of seven minutes was over, there was a small bell, which rang after which Mamata Banerjee caught up jiffy and just left.”
They added, “She did not even wait for anybody, including Rajnath Singh, who was asking chief ministers to speak to even give her a minute or two extra. In fact, a couple of other chief ministers who had exceeded that time asked for an extension and they were given so by Rajnath Singh.”
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Was Mamata’s mic really turned off? Here’s what NITI Aayog says
