Mamata Banerjee Walks Out of NITI Aayog Meeting, Claims Mic Was Turned Off; Government Denies, Says She Had Full Opportunity to Speak
Mamata Banerjee Walks Out of NITI Aayog Meeting, Accuses Bias in the Session During Media Interaction.
NITI Aayog’s 9th Governing Council Meeting Held in Delhi on July 27 Under PM Narendra Modi; West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee Walks Out Mid-Session.
Government Refutes Mamata Banerjee’s Claims: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Says Allegations of Mic Being Turned Off Are False, Asserts Time for Each Chief Minister Was Allocated.
Meeting Lasted 5 Hours; Opposition Chief Ministers Did Not Attend
The NITI Aayog meeting lasted five hours from 11 AM to 3 PM. Chief Ministers from the I.N.D.I.A bloc, including M.K. Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), P. Vijayan (Kerala), Hemant Soren (Jharkhand), Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), and Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), were absent from the meeting.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Also Absent; State’s Deputy CMs Samrat Chowdhury and Vijay Sinha Attended; Most BJP-ruled State CMs Present.
Mamata Banerjee Claims: Chandrababu Naidu Spoke for 20 Minutes, CMs from Chhattisgarh and Goa for 15 Minutes; Says She Was Allowed Only 5 Minutes and Cut Off.
Banerjee said, “This is a deliberate attempt to malign the opposition. I was the only one from the opposition-ruled states who attended, and they should have given me 30 minutes. I’m not so naive as to not manage my time. At the beginning of the meeting, Rajnath Singh said everyone should present their views in 5-7 minutes, but I wasn’t even given 7 minutes to speak. Our people were given 20 minutes, and the rest were given zero. I did the right thing by boycotting the meeting; I won’t let them insult Bengal. I stand firmly with opposition parties governing other states.”
PM Modi Says: States Play Crucial Role in Making India a Developed Nation by 2047
In the NITI Aayog meeting, Prime Minister Modi stated, “Transforming India into a developed nation by 2047 is the ambition of every Indian, and states can play an active role in achieving this goal as they are directly connected to the people.”
PM Modi Adds: This Decade is for Technological and Geopolitical Changes and Opportunities
The Prime Minister also said, “This decade is marked by technological and geopolitical changes as well as opportunities. The country should take advantage of these and align its policies with international investment trends. This will help in making India a developed nation.”
Mamata Banerjee Suggested: Abolish NITI Aayog and Reintroduce Planning Commission
The day before the meeting, Mamata Banerjee had stated that the NITI Aayog should be abolished and the Planning Commission should be reinstated. She mentioned that the Planning Commission was an idea of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. She further added, “This government will fall due to internal conflicts, just wait and see. I don’t have much time on this visit, which is why I am not meeting any leaders.”
15 Union Ministers Appointed as Ex-Officio Members of NITI Aayog
On July 16, the central government announced the new team for NITI Aayog. In addition to four full-time members, 15 Union ministers from the BJP and NDA ally parties were included as ex-officio members or special invitees.
A notification related to this was issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Prime Minister Modi will continue as the Chairman of the NITI Aayog, and economist Suman K. Berry will remain the Vice Chairman. Additionally, scientist V.K. Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, pediatrician V.K. Paul, and macro-economist Arvind Virmani will serve as full-time members.
Names of the 15 Union Ministers Included in NITI Aayog:
- Ex-Officio Members:
– Defense Minister Rajnath Singh
– Home Minister Amit Shah
– Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan
– Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman - Special Invitees:
– Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari
– Health Minister J.P. Nadda
– Heavy Industries Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy
– MSME Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi
Lallan Singh and Chirag Paswan Also Included
In addition to the aforementioned members, the special invitees include:
– Panchayati Raj Minister Lallan Singh
– Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar
– Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu
– Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram
– Women and Child Welfare Minister Annapurna Devi
– Food Processing Minister Chirag Paswan
– Minister of State Independent Charge Rao Inderjit Singh
Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Anurag Thakur, who were included in the commission last year, are not members this year.
What is NITI Aayog?
The National Institution for Transforming India, known as NITI Aayog, is a policy think tank of the Government of India that provides information and guidance on the government’s activities and policies. Established by the Modi government in 2015, NITI Aayog replaced the 65-year-old Planning Commission, which was responsible for creating plans related to national development.
NITI Aayog plays a crucial role in formulating strategies for the government’s long-term policies and programs. The Commission’s structure includes a Chairman, who is the Prime Minister, a Vice Chairman, and a CEO, all of whom are appointed by the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Modi chaired the first meeting of NITI Aayog on February 8, 2015.
