West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed on Friday that she will attend the NITI Aayog central think tank meeting scheduled for July 27 in Delhi.
Banerjee’s statement comes amid uncertainty over whether she too will skip the meeting like most other CMs in the INDIA bloc.
Speaking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for Delhi, Banerjee said she would attend the meeting and use the opportunity to register a protest against the “discriminatory budget” and “conspiracy to divide West Bengal and opposition-ruled states”.
The chief minister said he was asked to deliver a written speech seven days before the meeting was held and before the Union budget was presented.
“I will remain in the meeting for a while. If I get a chance to deliver a speech in the meeting and register my protest against the discrimination and political bias against the opposition-ruled states in the budget apart from the conspiracy being made to divide West Bengal and neighboring states, I will do it. If not, I will walk out of the meeting,” said the chief minister.
Banerjee, accompanied by her nephew and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, left for Delhi on Friday evening after postponing her trip to the national capital by a day.
The delay led to speculation that Banerjee, who had earlier expressed her intention to attend the NITI Aayog meeting, would join the opposition party’s chief ministers.
Some CMs of the INDIA bloc have announced their decision to skip the meeting as a sign of protest against the Union budget which, they alleged, was “anti-federal” in spirit and “extremely discriminatory” against their country.
The list includes Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin of DMK, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann of Aam Aadmi Party and all three Congress chief ministers – Siddaramaiah of Karnataka, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh and Telangana Revanth Reddy .
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren of JMM, however, is expected to attend the meeting despite earlier reports that he too has opted to skip it.
“All opposition-ruled states, including West Bengal, have been hijacked in this budget. The Center is showing a step-motherly attitude towards these states. I cannot accept such discrimination and political bias against us,” Banerjee said.
Referring to West Bengal BJP president and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar’s proposal to merge north Bengal with the northeastern states, but without naming her directly, Banerjee said she “strongly condemned the statement” while Parliament was in session.
“There is a conspiracy to divide West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. When the minister made his statement, the demand to divide the state is now coming from various other parts of the BJP. Dividing West Bengal means dividing India,” he said.
Calling the “conspiracy” a “geographical and political blockade in addition to the economic blockade that the Center has imposed on West Bengal”, Banerjee said she would stand by her position before attending the NITI Aayog meeting but only had a protest vote. .
“Hemant (Soren) and I will come to the meeting. We will speak for others (who will not come),” he said.
The opposition in West Bengal took the chief minister’s statement with a grain of salt, saying the move was calibrated for “political gain”.
“First he said yes to the meeting. Then there was confusion whether he had withdrawn and now he confirmed his participation in the meeting. He wants to keep the Narendra Modi government in good humor for political gain.
“When other political parties from the opposition bloc boycotted the meeting to register a protest, they chose to participate for the same reasons. The difference is,” said CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty.
The BJP, on the other hand, took a dig at Banerjee for staying away from previous NITI Aayog meetings.
“If the chief minister attends the earlier meetings, it will definitely benefit the people of West Bengal. NITI Aayog is not a place for politics. It is a platform to cater to the needs of the people represented by the chief minister. I hope good understanding is instilled in him ,” said BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from the feed of syndicated news agency – PTI)
