The 9th meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog was held today under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On reaching Kolkata after attending the meeting, Mamata Banerjee said that I believe that there should always be cooperative relations between the state and the Centre, there should be no politics in development. Mamta said that no one came to this meeting. I thought I would speak for everyone.
Mamta Banerjee said that more time was given to NDA allies and less time to other parties in the meeting. He said that if you paralyze the states then the Center will also be paralysed. The bell was being rung continuously in the meeting. However, the CMs of Assam, Arunachal and Goa expressed their views. Some people spoke for 15-20 minutes in the meeting.
When my turn came, after about 5 minutes he said you wait, during this I told him about the issues of Bhutan River. Many people are misleading on Teesta-Bangladesh issue. I said that the state is a party. But you never talked to us. It is not that I should speak for more than my allotted time.
Rajnath Singh said that there are 5-7 minutes for everyone. You can speak for 20 minutes and more. But I did good by boycotting the meeting. Because you were continuously ringing the bell. I am such a senior leader, I did not speak for more than 6 minutes. I was the only leader of the opposition. Now we have to think whether we can go, they are lying now. This is a deliberate attempt to intimidate the opposition.
Let us tell you that Mamata Banerjee had left the NITI Aayog meeting midway. He had said that I have boycotted the meeting. Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak. CMs of Assam, Goa, Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is wrong. He said that I am the only one representing the opposition here and am participating in this meeting because I am more interested in strengthening cooperative federalism. NITI Aayog has no financial powers, how will it work? Give it financial strength or bring back the Planning Commission. I lodged my protest and came out.
At the same time, Congress said on Mamata Banerjee’s claim that since its establishment 10 years ago, NITI Aayog has been an office attached to the PMO and has been playing the role of drumbeat for the PM. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that NITI Aayog has not taken forward cooperative federalism in any way. Its functioning has been clearly partisan and far from professional and independent, suppressing all divergent and dissenting views. Its meetings are a farce. Today, the behavior meted out to the CM of West Bengal is typical of NITI Aayog, which is completely unacceptable.
However, on Mamata’s allegations, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that Mamata Banerjee has said in the media that her mike has been switched off, this is a complete lie. CM Mamata Banerjee attended the NITI Aayog meeting. We all heard them. Each Chief Minister was given allotted time, which was visible on the screens installed on every table. He told the media that his mike had been switched off. This is completely false.