Mamata Banerjee walks out of PM-led Niti Aayog meet

An irate West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the Niti Aayog meeting that was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, claiming that her mic was muted, and she was not allowed to speak beyond five minutes.

Banerjee, who was the only Chief Minister from an opposition-ruled state to attend the meeting in Delhi, claimed her mic was muted when she brought up the issue of West Bengal being denied central funds. "I was allowed to speak only for five minutes. Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak. The chief ministers of Assam, Goa, Chhattisgarh spoke for 10–12 minutes. I registered my protest and came out," the Trinamool Congress chief said.

"I was talking about central funds not being given to West Bengal, this is when they muted my mic," Banerjee said. Calling the move an insult to Bengal and all regional parties, Banerjee alleged bias towards NDA allies.

Meanwhile, the union government sources defied the allegations charged by Banerjee. “Claim that microphone of West Bengal CM was switched off during the meeting correct. The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it. Alphabetically, her turn would have come after lunch. She was accommodated as the 7th speaker on an official request of West Bengal government as she had to return early,” it said.

According to the sources, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would protest inside and outside the Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon session over the insult of the state and its chief minister.

Several opposition-ruled states’ chief ministers, including Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin, Himachal Pradesh Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, decided to give it a miss as a mark of protest against the Union budget which, they alleged, was “anti-federal” in spirit and “extremely discriminatory” towards their states. Apart from opposition chief ministers, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also skipped the Niti Aayog meeting in New Delhi. The state was represented by Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha.