West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday walked out of a Niti Aayog meeting after she was “improperly prevented” from completing her speech. However, members of the ruling BJP and ally Congress strongly condemned the statement.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “Whatever Mamata Banerjee is saying about the Niti Aayog meeting, I think she is lying… It is very surprising that a CM of a state would not be allowed to speak. Mamata Banerjee knew what was going to happen there… she had the entire script.”
Banerjee walked out in the middle of the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming that she was inappropriately interrupted in the middle of her address.
However, BJP members called it a ‘pre-planned’ move, while Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said every chief minister was “allocated adequate time to speak”. The finance minister also accused Banerjee of “fabricating a story based on lies”.
“It is unfortunate that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that her mic was switched off, which is not true, and it is unfortunate because we are happy that she attended this meeting. She put forth her case, spoke for West Bengal and as she said, spoke for the entire opposition. But while she was doing that and we were listening as per the procedure, if she was reminded that her time was up, even though the mic was on, she could have requested that she continue speaking like some other Chief Ministers. But she chose to use that as an excuse so that she could walk out of the meeting,” Sitharaman told ANI.
The central government’s fact-checking body also dismissed the claim on Saturday afternoon as “misleading”. The PIB fact-check said “only the clock showed that his speaking time was over.”
(with inputs from agencies)
