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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has termed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim about the microphone as false. She said that Mamata’s claim of the microphone being turned off in the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday is false. She said that she is doing this to please the opposition India Alliance. She also responded to the statement issued on social media by Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh on this matter. In this, she said, ‘Now that she is saying baseless things outside, I can only conclude that she is trying to keep the India Alliance happy.’
Nirmala Sitharaman said, ‘Jairam, you were not even there. We all listened to the honourable Chief Minister. He spoke for his entire allotted time. The time was visible on the screen in front of our table. Some other Chief Ministers spoke for more than their allotted time. On their request, they were given additional time without any noise.’ She said that the mikes were not switched off, not for anyone. Especially not for the Chief Minister of West Bengal. It seems that Mamata Banerjee has made up her mind to spread false rumours.
After all, what did Jairam Ramesh say?
In fact, the Congress said that the way Mamata Banerjee was treated in the Niti Aayog meeting is completely unacceptable. Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh also claimed that the meetings of Niti Aayog are just a sham. This institution is not professional and independent. Congress leader Ramesh said in a post on X, ‘Since its establishment 10 years ago, Niti Aayog has been the attached office of the Prime Minister. It works as a drum-beating mechanism for the non-biological Prime Minister.’ He claimed that Niti Aayog has not strengthened cooperative federalism in any form. Its way of working has clearly been full of bias. It is not professional and independent at all. He said that it suppresses all kinds of different and dissenting views, which are the essence of an open democracy. Its meetings are just a sham.
(With agency input)
