In Delhi to attend a NITI Aayog meeting on July 27, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday said the public policy think-tank brought by the Modi government should be scrapped and the Planning Commission restored.
In an interaction with a group of journalists in New Delhi, the West Bengal chief minister called the BJP a "tukde-tukde platform" and asserted she will not allow her state to be divided.
Asked about the situation in neighbouring Bangladesh which has been rocked by widespread anti-quota agitation, Banerjee said while she cannot interfere in the matters of neighbouring countries, as per United Nation conventions her state has to give shelter if refugees turn up at the border.
Banerjee, who is set to attend the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday even as most INDIA bloc chief ministers have decided to give it a miss, said she felt their voices should be raised on a common platform.
"They (BJP) have formed the government but they don't have people's mandate. This is the first time after the BJP came in 2014 that they have not formed the government as a single party," said the Trinamool Congress chief whose party is a constituent of the INDIA bloc.
She said that because of their "compulsions", the BJP-ruled NDA has brought a "politically very biased budget" which "deprives" all opposition states.
"I thought it is my duty to raise this voice at least on a common platform though I know the NITI Aayog has no financial powers," she said.
"Since the NITI Aayog has been planned, I have not seen a single work being done because they don't have any power. Earlier, there was a Planning Commission. As a chief minister... at that time I saw there was a system," she said.
The Trinamool Congress Chief said state governments had power to discuss their issues under the Planning Commission and it was very good at taking care of states in different areas. "But now there is no hope, no scope." Banerjee said the NITI Aayog should be scrapped.
"I will raise my voice that stop this NITI Aayog. They do not have any financial power. They cannot do anything, only hold meeting once a year to show their face. Please bring back the Planning Commission again," Banerjee said.
"It was a plan of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and since Independence, the Planning Commission has worked a lot for the country," she said.
Banerjee also said she considered skipping the meeting like other members of the INDIA bloc, but she was convinced by the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to attend the meet.
She also said the chief ministers were asked to give their speeches for the meeting a week in advance, and she had already submitted her speech even before the Budget was presented.
"They requested us to send our speeches seven days before the meeting. We have seen the Budget after that… we were not aware of their actual moto," she said.
Commenting on the recent remarks by West Bengal BJP chief and union minister Sukanta Majumdar who proposed the inclusion of northern West Bengal under the DoNER ministry, she said it is an attempt to divided the state, and she will not let it happen.
"They are talking about dividing Bengal. Somebody from the BJP said divide Assam, someone said divide Bihar. They want to divide the country itself," Banerjee said.
She said she won't use the term "gang" for the BJP as it is an unparliamentary word, and rather call them "tukde-tukde platform".
"They are a tukde-tukde platform. They are trying to divide the country," she alleged.
When asked about her remarks that the National Democratic Alliance government will not finish its tenure, Banerjee, while said rifts will appear within the alliance.
"That is my hunch, but I may be wrong... But when you are in power, you should work for the welfare of people," she said.
On the situation in Bangladesh, she said, "I cannot interfere in the matters of other countries, but we share a border. If refugees come to my border, as per UN resolution, I am bound to give them a shelter." Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the NITI Aayog's ninth Governing Council meeting on July 27 which will focus on making India a developed nation by 2047.
Several INDIA bloc CMs have announced they will skip the meet as a mark of protest against the Union budget which, they alleged, was "anti-federal" in spirit and "extremely discriminatory" towards their states.
The list includes Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin of the DMK, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party and all three Congress chief ministers – Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telegana’s Revanth Reddy.
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