Mamata Banerjee Walks Out of NITI Aayog Meeting
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27, claiming she was not given a chance to speak.
Banerjee expressed her disappointment, stating, "I said you (central government) should not discriminate against state governments. I wanted to speak but I was allowed to speak only for 5 minutes. People before me spoke for 10-20 minutes. I was the only one from the opposition who was participating but still, I was not allowed to speak. This is insulting."
The meeting, which was the ninth Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog, was convened to discuss various development issues and policy matters. While several opposition chief ministers skipped the meeting, Banerjee, who is also part of the INDIA bloc, attended.
Banerjee further alleged that the Union Budget was full of "political bias." She claimed that BJP-ruled states were asked to highlight their achievements, while opposition states were not given the same opportunity.
Several other opposition chief ministers, including MK Stalin of Tamil Nadu, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, and all three Congress CMs, boycotted the meeting.
On July 26, Banerjee had called for the scrapping of NITI Aayog and the restoration of the Planning Commission.