Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged she was stopped from speaking after just five minutes at the NITI Aayog meeting.

 

Stalin emphasised that cooperative federalism requires dialogue and respect for all voices.

 

 "Is this the way to treat a Chief Minister? The Union BJP government must understand that opposition parties are an integral part of our democracy and should not be treated as enemies to be silenced. Cooperative federalism requires dialogue and respect for all voices," Stalin posted on X.

 

 After leaving the Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi midway, Banerjee accused the Centre of "insulting Bengal" by interrupting her speech after five minutes, claiming it was a deliberate attempt to "malign the opposition."

 

 Accusing the Centre of favouring BJP-ruled states with privileges and packages, Banerjee said, "I said whatever I could in the 3 to 4 minutes that I got. In the entire country, the way in which all the opposition-ruled states have been neglected and BJP-ruled states and their alliance members have been favored, we don't have any objection if any state is given more money but this is not acceptable that someone will get and someone will not get at all."

 

 The Chief Minister defended her decision to boycott the meeting, stating she should have been given extra time as she was representing the entire opposition.

 

Banerjee said,"I was the only one from the opposition-ruled states who had gone there. They should have given me 30 minutes. At the beginning of the meeting, Rajnath Singh said that everyone should present their views in 5-7 minutes, but I was not even given 7 minutes to speak. Their people were given 20 minutes, they got special packages and privileges, but others got 0 minutes. I did the right thing by boycotting the meeting. I will not let them insult Bengal. I stand strongly with the opposition parties running the government in other states."

 

 However, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejected Banerjee's claim that her microphone was switched off while she was speaking at the NITI Aayog meeting and said that every chief minister was "allotted due time to speak."

 

"CM Mamata Banerjee attended the Niti Aayog meeting. We all heard her. Every CM was given the allotted time, and that was displayed on the screen, which was present before every table. We could see that two tables had a screen before us. She said in the media that her mic was turned off. That is completely false. Every CM was given their due time to speak," the Finance Minister told ANI.

 

Sitharaman said it is "unfortunate" that the West Bengal CM is making such claims, adding that the government is happy Banerjee attended the meeting and noted that she said she was speaking on behalf of the opposition, i.e., the 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, and it is unfortunate because we're happy that she participated in this meeting. She put forth her case, spoke for West Bengal, and, as she said, spoke for all the opposition. But even as she was doing it and we were hearing, it was as per the procedure."

 

Sitharaman further said that Banerjee should have requested more time but chose to use it as an excuse to walk out of the meeting.