Plot against West Bengal, CM Mamata Banerjee says before NITI Aayog meet
Times of India | 27 July 2024
Mamata Banerjee accuses BJP of trying to divide Bengal and criticizes fund allocation at NITI Aayog meeting. KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: From ministers to members, BJP had been conspiring to divide Bengal, CM Mamata Banerjee told reporters at Kolkata airport while on her way to Delhi on Friday, adding: "To divide Bengal means to divide our country." The CM also said she would participate in the NITI Aayog meeting in the capital, scheduled on July 27, to "record our voice". Banerjee said that in the present circumstances, it was important for the opposition to be heard.
"From ministers to BJP members, they have been conspiring to divide Bengal. On the one hand, there is an economic blockade while on the other, there is a geographical and political blockade. They are trying to surround us from different sides," Banerjee said, stressing there was a "tukdo-tukdo korar prochesta (conspiracy to break India)"
The CM said even a Union minister (Bengal BJP president and junior minister Sukanta Majumdar) was making attempts to split the state. "When Parliament is in process, he is making his own statement to divide Bengal. And now from different sources, different party members are giving different types of statements - to divide Bihar, Jharkhand, to divide Assam and divide Bengal. We strongly condemn this attitude. To divide Bengal means to divide our country India. We don't support this," she said.
On the NITI Aayog meet, Banerjee said: "If they allow me to record our voice, I will do so. Else, I'll protest and leave. I will try to speak on behalf of my state. As far as I know, Hemant (Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren) is going to speak for his state. Between us, we'll speak on behalf of everybody."
Her decision to participate comes in the backdrop of CMs of several states governed by opposition parties deciding to skip the meeting likely to be chaired by PM Narendra Modi. On Wednesday, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy said that their govts would boycott the NITI Aayog discussions in protest against Centre's "injustice" to their states in terms of allocation of funds in the Union Budget 2024.
Banerjee also questioned the "attitude" of central ministers regarding the meeting. "I had taken the decision to go earlier but their behaviour has been (questionable). They had asked us to send the written speech seven days ago. The Budget was placed after all this. Bengal and other opposition-governed states were totally deprived in the Budget and given stepmotherly treatment and we cannot accept this discrimination and political bias," she said.
The CM was accompanied to Delhi by Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
At a press conference in Delhi, Banerjee said she would ask PM Narendra Modi "to scrap NITI Ayog and restore the Planning Commission", since the original version of the public policy thinktank was an "effective platform and NITI Aayog is a powerless body, meant only for speeches."
The TMC chief, however, said the boycott of the meeting "could have been better coordinated". "Possibly because it was a late decision after the Budget was presented, each state reacted on its own," she said. Admitting that she was in two minds on attending the meeting, Banerjee said: "Even I had thought of skipping it, so I cancelled my trip yesterday, but Abhishek convinced me this morning to attend the meeting and raise our issues on the joint platform."
"They (BJP) have formed govt but they don't have people's mandate. This is the first time after BJP came in, since 2014, they have not formed the govt as a single party," she said, adding, that because of "compulsions" the BJP-led NDA had brought a "politically biased budget" which "deprived" all opposition states.
"I thought it is my duty to raise this voice at least on a common platform though I know NITI Aayog has no financial powers... I have not seen any work being done because they don't have any power," she said. "I will raise my voice to scrap NITI Aayog, which has no powers and bring back the Planning Commission," Banerjee said, adding "it was a plan of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and since Independence, the Planning Commission has contributed a lot for the country".