Mamata Banerjee vs Nirmala Sitharaman over ‘mic turned off’ charge

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee sparked a huge political row on Saturday, alleging that her mic was muted before she could finish her speech at the NITI Aayog’s meeting.

She claimed the chief ministers of the states ruled by the BJP and its allies were allowed to speak for a longer duration but she was stopped from speaking just after five minutes. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman refuted the allegations.

What did Mamata Banerjee allege?

Mamata Banerjee accused the government of having a political bias. She claimed BJP ally Chandrababu Naidu was allowed to speak for 20 minutes.

“I have come out boycotting the meeting. (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister) Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak. The chief ministers of Assam, Goa, and Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is unfair. From the Opposition side, I was the only one here. I attended the meeting because cooperative federalism should be strengthened,” she said after coming out of the meeting.

At the meeting, she asked why the government discriminated against other states in the Union Budget.

Banerjee claimed she wanted to speak but her mic was muted, which was insulting.

What was Nirmala Sitharaman’s response?

Nirmala Sitharaman said every chief minister was allotted due time to speak. She said Banerjee’s claim that her mic was turned off was completely false.

“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,” she said.

Nirmala Sithraman said the Bengal CM didn’t request for more time.

“If she’s reminded that her time is over, even with the mic on, she could have requested that she continue speaking as some other chief ministers did. But she chose to use it as an excuse so that she can get out of the meeting,” Sitharaman said.

“She should speak the truth behind this rather than again build a narrative based on falsehood,” she added.

What did the PIB fact-check say?

A PIB fact-check debunked Banerjee’s allegations, saying that “only the clock showed that her speaking time was over.”

“It is being 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 PIB, Mamata Banerjee’s turn to speak would have been only after lunch, but she was “accommodated” as the seventh speaker after an official request from the chief minister.

“Alphabetically, CM, West Bengal turn would have come after lunch. She was accommodated as the 7th speaker on an official request of the West Bengal government as she had to return early,” PIB Fact Check explained in a subsequent post on X.

Meanwhile, 10 states and union territories didn’t attend the ninth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The absentees were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry.

BJP takes swipe at Mamata Banerjee

The Bharatiya Janata Party alleged Mamata Banerjee’s walkout was premeditated.

BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh said, “It is very easy to grab headlines in our country. First, tell me I am the only ‘Opposition CM’ attending the Niti Aayog meeting. Come out and tell ‘I boycotted since the mic was switched off’. Now the whole day TVs will display the same. No work. No discussion. That’s Didi to you.”

The BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya alleged that Banerjee’s walkout from the meeting was premeditated and for the cameras.

In a post on ‘X’, he said: “It is sad to see a Chief Minister reduce serious issues of governance to theatrics. People of West Bengal are suffering as a consequence of her confrontational politics.”

What NITI Aayog CEO said?

Meanwhile, the chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, said her points were heard “respectfully”.

“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,” Subrahmanyam added.

How did the Congress react?

The Congress said the treatment meted out to Mamata Banerjee was “unacceptable” and alleged that the government think-tank had been “blatantly partisan” in its functioning.

“Since it was established ten years ago, NITI Aayog has been an attached office of the PMO and has functioned as a drumbeater for the non-biological PM. Its functioning has been blatantly partisan, and it is anything but professional and independent…It muzzles all divergent and dissenting viewpoints, which are the very essence of an open democracy. Its meetings are a farce to be reckoned with,” Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.