Mamata interrupted, figment of imagination or playing politics? Certainly not good optics
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has alleged that she was not allowed to complete her presentation before the Niti Aayog and her mike was switched off.
The Chief Ministers of opposition-ruled states like Karnataka, Punjab, Jharkhand, Telangana, Kerala, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu had boycotted the meeting alleging unfair treatment in the union budget presented five days ago (July 23). (Image: PTI)
New Delhi: Like other anti-BJP INDIA-bloc partners, Trinamool Congress (TMC) did not boycott the governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog held on Saturday in New Delhi. Her claim was that she needs to put forward the demand of rightful funds for West Bengal in the meeting attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. However, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later claimed that she had to boycott the meeting mid-way as she was not allowed to speak and her mike was switched off. She alleged that while Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister was allowed to speak for over 20 minutes and other BJP chief ministers given ample time to complete their say, Banerjee was given only about five minutes and when she insisted that she be allowed to complete, her mike was switched off. Thereafter, she stormed out of the meeting alleging partiality.
“I have come out boycotting the meeting. Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak. The CMs of states like Assam, Goa and Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes (each). I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is unfair. I attended the meeting because cooperative federalism should be strengthened,” were her exact words.
However, this cannot be the entire truth. At best, it is only Banerjee’s version. The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has contradicted Banerjee’s claim and said that she was given enough time to speak. “Every CM was given ample time to speak. If she (Banerjee) wanted to speak beyond her fixed time, then she could have continued to do so by conveying to Rajnath Singh (Defence Minister), who was managing the time for all speakers. But she chose to use that as an excuse to get out of the meeting, and is now building a narrative,” alleged Sitharaman.
Why did the Opposition stay away from the meeting?
The Chief Ministers of opposition-ruled states like Karnataka, Punjab, Jharkhand, Telangana, Kerala, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu had boycotted the meeting alleging unfair treatment in the union budget presented five days ago (July 23). Banerjee was the only one to attend because as per her claims, West Bengal has over Rs. 1.71 lakh crores of pending dues towards the centre and she needed to convey the seriousness of the situation to the centre in person. She further alleged that all the centrally-sponsored welfare schemes have been stopped in her state due to one reason or the other. However, what turned out in the end is only a controversy.
What irked Banerjee?
And while the Centre has claimed that Banerjee was given ample time to speak and that even the bell was not rung to remind that her time was over, and that she was accommodated as the seventh speaker after an official request of the West Bengal government, something must have definitely irked her off. Even if she presumed that her mike was switched off, while it was not, Banerjee could have been interrupted verbally after the stipulated period of five minutes (officially) given to all the chief ministers. This could have been the trigger. The whole thing cannot be entirely the figment of her imagination. Also, since she was speaking after the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh (Naidu), Arunachal Pradesh (Pema Khandu), Assam (Himanta Biswa Sharma), Chhattisgarh (Vishnu Deo Sai) Goa (Pramod Sawant) and Gujarat (Bhupendra Patel), all BJP chief ministers and an ally who must have spoken uninterrupted and as long as they wanted, a slight reminder of time to Banerjee could have offended her. Even if it was after the passage of the seven or eight minutes, much beyond the stipulated period of five minutes.
Meanwhile, the opposition have come to defend Banerjee and said that treatment given to her is not ‘cooperative federalism’ and that Niti Aayog is nothing but extension of the PMO.
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