- Friday, April 04, 2025
By: Shajil Kumar
WEST BENGAL chief minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the Niti Aayog meeting in New Delhi on Saturday as she said she was stopped from speaking “after just five minutes”.
She also slammed the Union Budget for 2024-25, calling it “biased”.
“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. This is unfair. From the opposition side, I was the only one here. I attended the meeting because cooperative federalism should be strengthened.
“Even the budget…. This is a political, biased Budget. I said, why are you discriminating against other states?,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo told reporters after she came out of the meeting.
Earlier the West Bengal chief minister had called for the scrapping of Niti Ayog, a public policy think-tank brought by the Modi government, and restore the erstwhile Planning Commission.
Several INDIA bloc chief ministers had earlier announced they would skip the meet as a mark of protest against the Union budget, which they alleged was “anti-federal” in spirit and “extremely discriminatory” towards their states.
The list includes Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin of the DMK, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan of CPI(M), Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party and all three Congress chief ministers – Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) and Revanth Reddy (Telangana).
Stalin on Saturday attacked the Centre over Banerjee being reportedly stopped midway in her speech at the Niti Aayog meeting.
Stalin in a post on X asked, “Is this #CooperativeFederalism? 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. Cooperative Federalism requires dialogue and respect for all voices.”
Nitish stays away
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose party JD(U) is part of the ruling coalition National Democratic Alliance, did not attend the Niti Aayog meeting, officials said.
The state was represented at the meeting by deputy chief ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, they said.
The cause for Kumar’s absence from the crucial meeting could not be known immediately.
“This is not the first time that the chief minister is not attending the Nitish Aayog meeting. The CM did not attend the meeting earlier as well, and Bihar was represented by the then deputy CM. This time also both the deputy chief ministers went to attend the meeting,” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told PTI.
“Besides, there are four Union ministers from Bihar who are members of the Aayog and they will be present in the meeting. There is nothing to say on this,” he added.
Modi chairs meet
Meanwhile, prime minister Narendra Modi chaired the NITI Aayog’s ninth Governing Council meeting in New Delhi.
The meeting focuses on making India a developed nation by 2047. It aims to foster participative governance and collaboration between the Centre and state governments, enhancing the quality of life for both rural and urban populations by strengthening the delivery mechanisms of government interventions.
The council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all state chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories, and several Union ministers. The prime minister is the chairman of NITI Aayog.
The meeting also focuses on recommendations of the 3rd National Conference of Chief Secretaries held in December last year.
During the conference, recommendations were made on five key themes – drinking water: access, quantity, and quality; electricity: quality, efficiency, and reliability; health: accessibility, affordability, and quality of care; schooling: access and quality and land and property: accessibility, digitization, registration, and mutation.
A vision document is being prepared to help India become a developed economy of $30 trillion by 2047, the 100th year of its independence.
In 2023, NITI Aayog was entrusted with consolidating the ten sectoral thematic visions into a combined vision for Viksit Bharat @2047.
The vision encompasses various aspects of development, including economic growth, social progress, environmental sustainability, and good governance, among others. (PTI)
