The Ninth Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog was on Saturday, and PM Narendra Modi attended a meeting that depicted the country’s politically charged status. Although many of the opposition’s chief ministers boycotted the occasion, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a member of the INDIA bloc, was present at the event.
Niti Aayog is the reputed Indian government public policy forum, comprising the Prime Minister as the Chairman, the Chief Ministers of all the states, and the Union Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of the union territories. According to reports, the BJP office-bearers were told that the state chief ministers had to read out the main accomplishments of their respective governments.
Yet, the opposition chief ministers, such as Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana, decided not to attend the meeting. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, one of the members of the INDIA coalition partners, was also missing from the event, although the deputy chief ministers from Bihar represented the event.
Present at the meeting, Mamata Banerjee was subsequently accused of being mute and blocked from speaking. The Trinamool Congress chief was highly critical of Niti Aayog and preferred to have the Planning Commission back.
Speaking to journalists in another instance, Banerjee struck a low blow, attacking the BJP, saying it was a ‘tukde-tukde platform’ to which she stated she would not allow her state to be divided.
On the current situation in neighboring Bangladesh, she stated that although she cannot directly influence other countries’ internal policy, West Bengal would welcome refugees if they crossed the border into the state.
Like earlier, once again, the Niti Aayog meeting has exposed that the political cracks are getting wider in the country. The opposition parties are not willing to change their stand and are boycotting the event. Thus, the subject of the organisation that concentrates on government policy and its future functions in unifying potential stakeholders will stay uncertain with the transforming political climate.
