Mamta Banerjee turned down the NITI Aayog meeting, says was muted after 5 minutes amid speech

The only opp. CM attending NITI Aayog meeting on July 27, Mamta Banerjee, claims to have been shut down by turning off her microphone amid the speech, but is declared to be a pure rumour by NITI Aayog’s CEO and PIB.

Mamta walks out of the meeting

The NITI Aayog’s 9^th Governing Council Meet led by PM Narendra Modi was held on 27^th July, Saturday in New Delhi. All the states’ CMs, all Lt. Governors of all UTs and few Union Ministers as well. In Opposition’s scenario, most of the Opp.-majority holders of different states declared absolute boycott on the Think Tank’s meet this year.

The reason has been highlighted as their difference of opinions on the Union Budget 2024, as a result of which the CMs of Himachal, Karnataka and Telangana, the Congress major states had expressed complete disagreement on attending the meeting in New Delhi. Adding to the list, the other state CMs of Tamil Nadu, Kerela and AAP led Punjab and Delhi have boycotted the meet.

Here, the only Opp. led CM attending the meeting was TMC’s chief Mamta Banerjee. She has claimed that her microphone was muted just within a span of 5 minutes of her speech and was not allowed to speak. Also, she added to her accusation that the other members that spoke before her were allowed to talk for around 10-20 minutes. This had the Mamta rages out of the meeting amid ongoing session. After exiting, the West Bengal CM started accusing the Central government and criticizing the meet altogether.

‘Misleading’ says PIB and Aayog

The NITI Aayog CEO, BVR Subramanyam gave a statement regarding Banerjee’s allegations, saying that the CM requested to talk after the lunch break even though the sequence was set to be alphabetically, she got called just before Gujarat and hence made her statement. Press Information Bureau Fact Check (PIB Fact Check) also reconfirmed the investigation and said the TMC’s chief was ‘Misleading’ and her statements were declared forged.

The PIB posted on X saying that the clock only showed the time that was left with her to speak, even the bell did not ring to mark it. Several politicians as well as union ministers have slammed Banerjee on walking out of the meet saying that it is quite insulting as such. Cong leader Adhir Choudhary has expressed disagreement by calling the CM ‘liar’ and has written about it to the President in a letter concerning the dignity of such officials meetings breached by people. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also criticized Mamta’s claim and said that the CM spoke for entire time allotted to her.