“Insulting”: Mamata Banerjee, Only Opposition CM In Attendance, Walks Out Of NITI Meeting

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, the only Opposition Chief Minister who was participating in the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi today, walked out after accusing the centre of insult and discrimination. Banerjee said her mic was stopped while she was speaking and was not given enough time to speak.

“While I was speaking, my mic was stopped. I said, ‘Why did you stop me? Why are you discriminating?,” an angry Mamata told the media after walking out of the meeting.

Read Also: “Insulting”: Mamata Banerjee, Only Opposition CM In Attendance, Walks Out Of NITI Meeting

“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…,” she told the media.

The purpose of a NITI Aayog meeting is to discuss and formulate policies to promote sustainable development and inclusive growth in India, and the participants include central and state government officials.

Read Also: Congress Chief Ministers To Boycott NITI Aayog Meeting – Here’s Why

Earlier, Congress and other INDIA alliance chief ministers, except Mamata Banerjee, had announced that they will not be participating in the meeting accusing the centre of discrimination towards their respective states in the Union Budget that was announced on last Tuesday.

Announcing that the Congress chief ministers will boycott the NITI Aayog meeting, Congress recently said that the Union Budget was extremely discriminatory and dangerous, which completely goes against the principles of federalism and fairness that the Union Government must follow.

The party had also alleged that the current government’s attitude is completely antithetical to Constitutional principles, asserting that it will not participate in an event that is solely designed to hide the true, discriminatory colours of this regime.

INDIA bloc chief ministers, including Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin of DMK, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan of CPM, Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann of AAP and all three Congress chief ministers — Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy, boycotted the meeting, being held today.

Banerjee had earlier said that she would join the meeting and use the opportunity to register her protest against a discriminatory policies of the Union government.