New Delhi, 27 July

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of a NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday and claimed that she was unfairly stopped midway in her speech, despite being the sole representative of the Opposition.

The government, however, rejected her claim and said her speaking time was over.

Banerjee said her microphone was switched off after five minutes, while other chief ministers were allowed to speak for longer durations. "This is insulting. I will not attend any further meeting," the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo said. "I have come out boycotting the meeting. (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister) Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak. The chief ministers of Assam, Goa, Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes," she told reporters after coming out of the meeting of chief ministers chaired by Modi.

"This is unfair. I am the only one from the opposition side. I attended this meeting because of the greater interest that cooperative federalism should be strengthened," she added.

However, PIB Factcheck, in a post on X, said it is "misleading" to say that Banerjee's microphone was switched off. "The clock only showed that her speaking time was over," it said.

Sources said alphabetically, Banerjee's turn to speak would have come after lunch, but she was accommodated as the seventh speaker on an official request from the West Bengal government as she had to return to Kolkata early.

Banerjee said she mentioned during the meeting that the BJP-led Centre presented a politically-biased budget and asked why was it discriminating among states. "They are politically biased. They are not giving proper attention to different states. Even the budget is a politically-biased budget," she said.

"I do not have any problem with them giving special attention to some states. I asked why were they discriminating against other states. This should be reviewed. I am speaking for all the states. I said we are the ones who work while they only give directions," the TMC supremo said.

She also said the NITI Aayog does not have any financial powers and either it should be given those powers or the Planning Commission should be reinstated. "The Planning Commission used to plan for the states. The NITI Aayog has no financial powers. How will it work? Give it financial powers or bring the Planning Commission back," she said.

"I also said how the MGNREGA and (Prime Minister) Awas (Yojana) funds were halted (for West Bengal) for three years. If they discriminate between their party and others, how will the country run? When they are in power, they have to take care of all," Banerjee said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin came out in support of his West Bengal counterpart. "Is this Cooperative Federalism? Is this the way to treat a Chief Minister? The Union BJP government must understand that opposition parties are an integral part of our democracy and should not be treated as enemies to be silenced," he said in a post on X.

"Cooperative Federalism requires dialogue and respect for all voices," Stalin added.

Chief ministers of the INDIA bloc -- Stalin (DMK), Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M), Punjab's Bhagwant Mann (Aam Aadmi Party), Congress's Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) and Revanth Reddy (Telangana), and Jharkhand's Hemant Soren (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) -- skipped the NITI Aayog meeting.

Opposition parties have alleged that the states ruled by them have been ignored in the Union Budget presented recently in the Lok Sabha. Modi is chairing the NITI Aayog's ninth Governing Council meeting, which focuses on making India a developed country by 2047.