Mamata to attend NITI Aayog meeting to protest 'budget bias, conspiracy to divide states'

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed on Friday that she would participate in the central think-tank NITI Aayog meeting scheduled on July 27 in Delhi.

Banerjee's statement came amid uncertainty on whether she, too, would skip the meet like most other CMs of the INDIA bloc.

Talking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for Delhi, Banerjee said she would join the meeting and use the opportunity to register her protest against a "discriminatory budget" and the "conspiracy to divide West Bengal and other opposition-ruled states".

The chief minister said she was asked to send her written speech seven days ahead of the meeting which she did and that was before the Union budget was tabled.

"I will stay at the meeting for a while. If I get an opportunity to deliver my speech at the meeting and register my protest against the discrimination and political bias against the opposition-ruled states in the budget besides the conspiracy that is being hatched to divide West Bengal and its neighbouring states, I will do so. Else, I will walk out of the meeting," the chief minister said.

Banerjee, accompanied by her nephew and the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, left for Delhi on Friday afternoon after postponing her trip to the national capital by a day.

The postponement had stirred speculations on whether Banerjee, who had earlier expressed her intention to attend the NITI Aayog meeting, would join the bandwagon of opposition party chief ministers.

Several INDIA bloc CMs had announced their decision to skip the meeting 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 CM MK Stalin of the DMK, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party and all three Congress chief ministers -- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana's Revanth Reddy.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren of the JMM is, however, likely to join the meeting despite earlier reports that he, too, had chosen to give it a miss.

"All opposition-ruled states, including West Bengal, have been totally deprived in this budget. The Centre has shown 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 integrate north Bengal with the northeastern states but without directly naming him, Banerjee said she "strongly condemned such statements" coming at a time when Parliament is in session.

"There's a conspiracy to divide West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. While the minister is making his own statements, the demand to divide these states is now coming from various other quarters of the BJP. Dividing West Bengal means dividing India," she alleged.

Calling the "conspiracy" a "geographical and political blockade besides the economic blockade that the Centre has already imposed on West Bengal", Banerjee said she would stick to her earlier position of attending the NITI Aayog meeting but only have her voice of protest on record.

"Hemant (Soren) and I will be present at the meeting. We will speak on behalf of the others (who won't be present)," she said.

The opposition in West Bengal took the chief minister's statements with a pinch of salt, stating that the move was calibrated to her "political gains".

"First she said yes to the meeting. Then there was the confusion on whether she had backtracked and now she confirms participation in the meeting. She wants to keep the Narendra Modi government in good humour for her political gains.

"When the rest of the political parties of the opposition bloc are boycotting the meeting to register their protest, she has chosen to attend it citing the same reasons. That's the difference," CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said.

The BJP, on the other hand, took a dig at Banerjee for staying away from previous NITI Aayog meetings.

"Had the chief minister attended the previous meetings, it would have benefited the people of West Bengal. The NITI Aayog is not a place for politics. It is a platform to put forward the needs of the people the chief minister represents. We hope that good sense has dawned on her," BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said.