Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, BVR Subrahmanyam, dismissed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's claim that her microphone was muted while speaking at the NITI Aayog meeting. He clarified that each Chief Minister was given a designated speaking time, which was displayed on screens at their tables, and that the time allotted to the West Bengal Chief Minister had ended.
Addressing a press conference after the NITI Aayog meeting, Mr Subrahmanyam said that the West Bengal Chief Minister requested to speak early before lunch, and "it was accepted."
"The Chief Minister of West Bengal requested to be given a turn before lunchtime. I'm just putting facts on the ground, no interpretations. It was a clear request from their side because normally we would have gone alphabetically, starting with Andhra Pradesh, then Arunachal Pradesh. We adjusted, and the Defence Minister called her in just before Gujarat. So, she made her statement," he said.
"Every Chief Minister is allotted seven minutes, and there's a clock on top of the screen that shows the remaining time. It goes from seven to six to five to four to three. At the end, it shows zero. Nothing else happened. Then she said she would have liked to speak for more time but chose not to. That was it. We all heard her points respectfully, and they will be reflected in the minutes. The Chief Secretary continued to attend the meeting even after she left to catch a flight to Calcutta," Mr Subrahmanyam added.
The CEO further mentioned that the Chief Ministers of ten states and Union Territories did not attend the meeting.
"We had 10 absentees and 26 participants. Absentees included Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Puducherry. The Chief Minister of West Bengal was present," he said.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also rejected Mamata Banerjee's claim that her microphone was switched off during the NITI Aayog meeting, stating that every Chief Minister was "allotted due time to speak."
"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attended the NITI Aayog meeting. We all heard her. Every Chief Minister was given their allotted time, displayed on the screen before each table. It's completely false that her mic was turned off. Every Chief Minister was given their due time to speak," the Finance Minister told ANI.
Ms Sitharaman described Ms Banerjee's claims as "unfortunate," adding that the government was happy that the West Bengal Chief Minister attended the meeting, where she spoke on behalf of the opposition, i.e., INDIA bloc.
"It's unfortunate that the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, has claimed that her mic was switched off, which is not true. We're happy she participated in this meeting, presented her case for West Bengal, and spoke for the opposition. But even as she did so, we adhered to the procedure," Sitharaman said.
She further remarked that Ms Banerjee should have requested more time if needed, instead of using it as an excuse to walk out of the meeting.
"If reminded that her time is over, she could have requested to continue speaking as other Chief Ministers did. Instead, she used it as an excuse to leave the meeting," Ms Sitharaman said. "She should speak the truth rather than build a narrative based on falsehood," she added.
Earlier, the central government's fact-checking body refuted as "misleading" the claim made by the West Bengal Chief Minister about her microphone being switched off.
A PIB fact-check today debunked her allegations, stating that "only the clock showed that her speaking time was over."
"It is claimed that the microphone of CM West Bengal was switched off during the 9th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog. This claim is misleading. The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it," the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a post on X.
According to the government fact-checking body, Mamata Banerjee's turn to speak would have been after lunch if scheduled alphabetically, but she was "accommodated" as the seventh speaker on an official request from the Chief Minister.
"Alphabetically, CM West Bengal's turn would have come after lunch. She was accommodated as the 7th speaker on an official request from the West Bengal government as she had to return early," PIB Fact Check explained in a subsequent tweet.
Speaking to reporters, the West Bengal Chief Minister alleged "political discrimination," stating that at the NITI Aayog meeting, she was not allowed to speak for more than five minutes, while other Chief Ministers were given more time.
"I said the central government should not discriminate against state governments. I wanted to speak, but my mic was muted. I was allowed to speak only for five minutes. People before me spoke for 10-20 minutes," Ms Banerjee told reporters after she stormed out of the NITI Aayog meeting today.
"I was the only one from the opposition participating, but still, I was not allowed to speak. This is insulting," Ms Banerjee said as she walked out of the meeting midway.
"I have come out boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting. Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak, Chief Ministers of Assam, Goa, and Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped after just five minutes. This is unfair," the Chief Minister said, speaking to reporters after leaving the meeting.
Claiming she participated in the meeting to strengthen "cooperative federalism," Ms Banerjee said, "There are many regional aspirations. That is why I am here, to share those aspirations. If a state is strong, the Union will be strong."
The Chief Minister stated that several states, including West Bengal, were deprived in the Union Budget presented in Parliament this week.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)