New Delhi: After a surprise appearance, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stormed out of NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi, which was held to allow states to present their concerns to the Prime Minister, claiming that her mic was muted, and she was not allowed to speak beyond five minutes.
“I said you (Centre) shouldn’t discriminate against state governments. 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,” Mamata told reporters.
She claimed her mic was muted when she brought up the issue of West Bengal being denied central funds. “This is insulting. I will not attend any further meetings,” she added.
The TMC chief was the only Chief Minister from a non-BJP ruled state to attend the meeting, as all other INDIA bloc leaders boycotted the event as a mark of protest against what they called a “discriminatory” Union Budget. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also skipped the meeting and the state was represented by Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha.
In a post on X, PIB Factcheck later said it is “misleading” to say that her microphone was switched off. “The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it,” it said.
It is being claimed that the microphone of CM, West Bengal was switched off during the 9th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog#PIBFactCheck
▶️ This claim is #Misleading
▶️ The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it pic.twitter.com/P4N3oSOhBk
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) July 27, 2024
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also asserted that Mamata’s claim that her mic was switched off is completely false. “We all heard her. Every CM was given the allotted time and that was displayed on the screen which was present before every table…It’s unfortunate that the chief minister of West Bengal claimed that her mic was switched off which is not true…She should speak the truth behind this rather than again build a narrative based on falsehood,” she told ANI.
Reports further said that her turn would have come again after lunch. “She was accommodated as the seventh speaker on an official request of the West Bengal government as she had to return early,” India Today reported, quoting government sources.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also refused to believe the Bengal CM’s claim. “The things that Mamata Banerjee is saying regarding NITI Aayog meeting, I feel like she is lying…it is very surprising if a state’s CM wouldn’t be allowed to speak. Mamata Banerjee knew what would be happening there…she had the script…” he told ANI.
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