Oppn in Bengal ridicules Mamata Banerjee over walkout from NITI Aayog meeting

KOLKATA — The opposition parties in West Bengal on Saturday ridiculed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for staging a walkout from the 9th Governing Council meeting of the NIT Aayog in the national capital.

Banerjee on Saturday walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting claiming that her microphone was switched off in the middle of her speech.

“I was not allowed to speak even for five minutes. I was insulted as my microphone was switched off,” the Chief Minister told mediapersons after coming out of the meeting.

Later, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry refuted the ‘microphone switched off’ claim, terming it ‘misleading’.

“It is claimed that the microphone of CM, West Bengal, was switched off during the 9th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog. This is not correct. The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it,” PIB said in a fact-check.

Commenting on the matter, Bengal BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said, “It was not clear in the first place why she went (to Delhi) to attend the meeting. Was it to express her views or to create a drama to show her political relevance?”

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate in the Calcutta High Court, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, called the entire development a fallout of a scripted drama by the Chief Minister.

“First, she attended the meeting at a time when all the Chief Ministers from the opposition bloc boycotted the same. She did this to send a subtle message to the BJP. However, at the same time, she has to maintain her anti-BJP facade for her political compulsions at the state level. The result was the Chief Minister walking out of the meeting,” Bhattacharya said.

Veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called the entire episode a strategically scripted drama.

“This is nothing new for Mamata Banerjee. She is known for such scripted theatrics,” he said.

The opposition parties are also questioning the Chief Minister’s ‘contradictory’ statements.

She had claimed before mediapersons in Delhi that her microphone was switched off in the middle of her speech. However, on her return to Kolkata, she said the buzzer was pressed signalling her to stop when she was five minutes into her speech, while some ruling party Chief Ministers were allowed to speak for much longer durations.