At Key Meeting To Discuss State Issues, A Surprise Mamata Banerjee Appearance

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the only Opposition leader present at the NITI Aayog meet today, said that she wasn’t allowed to speak for more than 5 minutes.  

“I said you (central government) should not discriminate against state governments. I wanted to speak but I was allowed to speak only for 5 minutes. People before me spoke for 10-20 minutes. I was the only one from the opposition who was participating but still, I was not allowed to speak. This is insulting,” the Trinamool Congress chief said after storming out of the meeting.

The meeting is being chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with an aim of giving all states the opportunity to present their concerns and pressing issues.

“The meeting under PM Modi’s leadership will address various state-specific concerns. Goa is actively participating and has also announced 10 percent reservations under the Agniveer scheme for uniformed services,” Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said about the meeting.

The central theme for the meeting is “Viksit Bharat@2047,” focusing on envisioning India as a developed nation by the year 2047. The agenda includes discussing the approach paper for this vision document, with PM Modi presiding over the discussions.

Opposition leaders have refused to attend citing the ‘raw deal’ meted out to them in the Union Budget. Among all states ruled by INDIA bloc parties, only West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was present at the meet.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin initiated the boycott, followed by Congress-ruled states like Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah, and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy. The Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government, under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and the Jharkhand and Kerala chief ministers, Hemant Soren and Pinarayi Vijayan respectively, have also decided to skip the event.