Why Is INDIA Bloc Boycotting NITI Aayog Meet? What Prompted Bengal CM To Attend The Event?

Most Opposition CMs are boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by PM Modi alleging a "vengeful" Budget that discriminates against non-BJP states. However, Mamata Banerjee will attend the meet.

The 9th NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting to be held on Saturday, July 27, has already come at the centre of a political storm after Congress Chief Ministers decided to boycott it. This high-level event, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is slated to be conducted at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre. However, all BJP and NDA CMs will attend the meeting. 

CMs of the 8 northeastern states — Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Lalduhoma (Mizoram), Conrad Sangma (Meghalaya), Neiphiu Rio (Nagaland), N Biren Singh (Manipur), Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh), Manik Saha (Tripura), and Prem Singh Tamang (Sikkim) — are expected to attend the meeting. Among them, Lalduhoma's ZPM is the only independent party, aligning neither with the BJP-led NDA nor the INDIA bloc.

Most of the INDIA bloc parties are learnt to have boycotted the meeting. However, the position of Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren is still unknown. Those who boycotted the meeting include Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Punjab's Bhagwant Mann. The only Opposition CM to have agreed to attend the NITI Aayog meeting is Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. But she has demanded that the NITI Aayog be scrapped and the Planning Commission be reintroduced.

Alleging a lack of “coordination” among the parties of the INDIA bloc on boycotting the meeting, Mamata Banerjee said she would be the Opposition’s voice at the PM Modi-chaired NITI Aayog meeting.

Why Are Opposition Parties Boycotting The NITI Aayog Meeting?

The Opposition parties announced the boycott earlier, calling the Budget 2024 a "vengeful Budget". "The budget presented by the Union Finance Minister seems like a vengeful act against the states and people who boycotted the BJP. She has prepared a budget to take revenge against those who voted for the INDIA bloc. The union BJP govt is disregarding Tamil Nadu continuously," said Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin.

Although Mamata Banerjee has decided against boycotting the meeting, she agreed with the INDIA bloc CMs that it was a "discriminatory Budget". She further said that the BJP was trying to divide Bengal and other states.

On AAP's Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting, the party's Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh said, "I have read the statements of Bhagwant Mann and other big leaders regarding this, it's correct as the budget is not that satisfactory. I stand with my party... There was nothing for Punjab. What is there for the farmers who are sitting there [in protest]? I don't think this budget has benefitted anyone except one or two states." He said there was nothing new to look forward to in the Budget.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, too, has boycotted the meeting. Earlier this week he said that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had displayed a "discriminatory attitude" towards several states. " Our genuine demands for AIIMS, disaster relief packages, and interventions for the tourism sector have been met with deafening silence. This indifference undermines the aspirations of Keralites and is deeply disheartening," he said. 

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that the CMs of the INDIA bloc will not go to the NITI Aayog meeting. "Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin had earlier said he would not go, Arvind Kejriwal is in jail, Telangana CM and there are other CMs who do not want to go because NITI Aayog is not keeping pace with the country's development, you must have seen this in the budget and NITI Aayog's work," he said.