Saturday’s NITI Aayog assembly led to a dramatic showdown when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stormed out, accusing the central authorities of ‘muting her mic’. Banerjee alleged the BJP allies got extra time to talk, whereas she was abruptly minimize off after solely 5 minutes.
This led to a heated political conflict, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and different officers vehemently denying her accusations.
Rising from the assembly, Banerjee mentioned: “I’ve come out boycotting the assembly. Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to talk. The chief ministers of Assam, Goa, and Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I used to be stopped from talking after simply 5 minutes. That is unfair.”
She questioned the federal government’s dedication to cooperative federalism and accused it of discriminating in opposition to non-BJP states within the Union Price range.
Sitharaman swiftly countered Banerjee’s claims, stating, “CM Mamata Banerjee attended the Niti Aayog assembly. All of us heard her. Each CM was given the allotted time, and that was displayed on the display screen, which was current earlier than each desk. She mentioned within the media that her mic was turned off. That’s fully false.” She added, “If she’s reminded that her time is over, even with the mic on, she might have requested to proceed talking as another chief ministers did. However she selected to make use of it as an excuse to get out of the assembly.”
The Press Data Bureau (PIB) additionally refuted Banerjee’s allegations. A fact-check by PIB acknowledged, “It’s being claimed that the microphone of CM, West Bengal was switched off in the course of the ninth Governing Council Assembly of NITI Aayog. This declare is deceptive. The clock solely confirmed that her talking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it.” In keeping with PIB, Banerjee’s flip to talk was scheduled after lunch, however she was “accommodated” because the seventh speaker following an official request from her workplace.
Because the drama unfolded, BJP leaders didn’t maintain again. BJP normal secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh remarked, “It is extremely straightforward to seize headlines in our nation. First, inform me I’m the one ‘Opposition CM’ attending the Niti Aayog assembly. Come out and inform ‘I boycotted for the reason that mic was switched off’. Now the entire day TVs will show the identical. No work. No dialogue. That is Didi to you.”
Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s IT division, known as Banerjee’s actions theatrical and detrimental to governance. “It’s unhappy to see a Chief Minister cut back severe problems with governance to theatrics. Folks of West Bengal are struggling as a consequence of her confrontational politics,” he acknowledged.
NITI Aayog’s CEO, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, supplied a factual account, stating, “The Chief Minister of West Bengal requested to be given a flip earlier than lunchtime. It was a transparent request from their aspect as a result of usually we might have gone alphabetically. We adjusted, and the Defence Minister known as her in simply earlier than Gujarat. So, she made her assertion.” He added, “Each Chief Minister is allotted seven minutes, and there is a clock on high of the display screen that exhibits the remaining time. Nothing else occurred. Then she mentioned she would have favored to talk for extra time however selected to not. All of us heard her factors respectfully, and they are going to be mirrored within the minutes.”
The Congress get together joined the fray, condemning the remedy of Banerjee and accusing NITI Aayog of blatant partisanship. Congress chief Jairam Ramesh commented, “Because it was established ten years in the past, NITI Aayog has been an connected workplace of the PMO and has functioned as a drumbeater for the non-biological PM. Its functioning has been blatantly partisan, and it’s something however skilled and unbiased. It muzzles all divergent and dissenting viewpoints, that are the very essence of an open democracy. Its conferences are a farce to be reckoned with.”
