NITI Aayog meeting: Mamata Banerjee walks out of Niti Aayog meeting, saying her mic was muted

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and alleged that her microphone was cut off while she was speaking.“I boycotted the meeting. (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister) Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak. Chief ministers of Assam, Goa and Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is unfair,” Banerjee said, claiming her microphone had been switched off.

“I said why did you stop me, why are you discriminating? I am attending the meeting, you should be happy instead of being happy that you are giving more leeway to your party, your government. I am only here, I am from the opposition and you are stopping me from speaking. This is not only an insult to Bengal, but to all regional parties,” Banerjee said.

“Even the budget. It is a political and biased budget. 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 Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo told reporters after coming out of the meeting.

Several chief ministers from the INDIA bloc had announced their decision not to attend the meeting in protest against the Union Budget which they said was “anti-federal” in spirit and “extremely discriminatory” against their states.

The list includes Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin of the DMK, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party and the three Congress chief ministers – Siddaramaiah of Karnataka, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh and Revanth Reddy of Telangana. “All the opposition-ruled states, including West Bengal, have been totally deprived of this budget. The Centre has shown a stepmotherly attitude towards these states. I cannot accept such discrimination and political bias against us,” Banerjee said earlier. Referring to West Bengal BJP president and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar’s proposal to integrate North Bengal with the northeastern states but without naming him directly, Banerjee said she “strongly condemns such statements” coming at a time when Parliament is in session.

“There is a conspiracy to divide West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. While the minister is making his own statements, the demand to divide these states is now coming from various other sections of the BJP. Dividing West Bengal means dividing India,” she alleged.