Mamata Banerjee storms off, alleges mic switched off at NITI Aayog meet

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee arrives at the NSCBI Airport after the meeting, in Kolkata. PIC/PTI

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that she was humiliated as she was not allowed to speak at the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi. Banerjee said she has no problems if other states are allocated more funds, but would protest discrimination against West Bengal.

"I was not allowed to speak. They were repeatedly ringing the bell. This is humiliation," she said while speaking to reporters at Kolkata airport after arriving from New Delhi. The Congress on Saturday said the treatment meted out to Banerjee at a NITI Aayog meeting here was "unacceptable" and alleged that the government think-tank has been "blatantly partisan" in its functioning, muzzling all divergent and dissenting viewpoints.

The opposition party's scathing criticism of the NITI Aayog came after Banerjee walked out of its 9th Governing Council meeting, claiming she was unfairly stopped midway through her speech. Refuting allegations made by Banerjee, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that Mamata spoke her full time and her mic was not switched off in between at the NITI Aayog's governing council meeting on Saturday. The government too, rejected Banerjee's charge as "misleading", saying she had exhausted the time allotted for her speech. "The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it," the PIB Factcheck said. in a post on X.

States protest by giving Aayog meeting a miss

As many as 10 states and UTs did not participate in the ninth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said on Saturday.

BVR Subrahmanyam, head of the Aayog addresses the media. PIC/PTI

The meeting was attended by 26 participants including Chief Ministers and Lt Governors of UTs, he said while briefing the media. The absentees were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry, he said adding "It is their loss if they did not participate".

Regarding West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who walked out of the meeting, Subrahmanyam said her request to speak before lunch was accepted although her turn would have come in the afternoon going in the alphabetical order of the states.

The NITI Aayog CEO further said that when her time was up, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh just tapped the mic and she stopped speaking and walked out. Although officials of West Bengal government continued to attend the meeting, he added. About Bihar, he said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could not attend the meeting as he was busy with an assembly session in the state.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address at the meeting, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery said that he wanted the states to compete for FDI so that investments could reach all the states.