Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde Responds to Mamata Banerjee’s Allegations at NITI Aayog Meeting
New Delhi [India], July 27: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde responded to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegations about a muted mic at the NITI Aayog meeting and the opposition’s boycott. Shinde accused the opposition of focusing more on politics than on development and trying to defame India abroad.
Shinde said, “They do not want development, they do not want the country to progress. They just want to do politics and defame the country’s name in foreign countries.” He added that the opposition united to defeat Prime Minister Modi in the Lok Sabha elections but failed, as the people supported Modi, making him Prime Minister again. Shinde believes Modi will achieve more in the next five years than the opposition has in the last ten years.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Centre of “insulting Bengal” by interrupting her speech after five minutes at the NITI Aayog meeting. She claimed it was a deliberate attempt to “malign the Opposition” and accused the Centre of favoring 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 favoured, 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.”
Defending her decision to boycott the meeting, Banerjee stated that she should have been given extra time as she was representing the entire opposition. She 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.”
Banerjee also criticized the central government for only giving directives and pasting posters, while the actual work has to be done by the states.
Doubts Revealed
Maharashtra CM -: CM stands for Chief Minister. The Chief Minister is the head of the government in a state in India. Eknath Shinde is the current Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a state in India.
Eknath Shinde -: Eknath Shinde is a politician and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a state in India. He is a member of the Shiv Sena party.
Mamata Banerjee -: Mamata Banerjee is the Chief Minister of West Bengal, another state in India. She is the leader of the Trinamool Congress party.
NITI Aayog -: NITI Aayog is a policy think tank of the Government of India. It helps in making important decisions for the country’s development.
opposition -: The opposition refers to political parties and leaders who are not in power and often criticize the government. In this context, it includes parties like Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.
defame -: To defame means to damage someone’s good reputation by saying bad things about them. Here, it means making India look bad in front of other countries.
PM Modi -: PM stands for Prime Minister. Narendra Modi is the current Prime Minister of India. He is the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
BJP -: BJP stands for Bharatiya Janata Party. It is one of the major political parties in India and is currently in power at the central government.
boycott -: To boycott means to refuse to participate in something as a way of protest. Mamata Banerjee decided not to attend the NITI Aayog meeting as a form of protest.