‘Narrative based on falsehood’: Sitharaman calls Mamata’s ‘mic off’ claim ‘unfortunate’ | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman fended off West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee‘s charge that her mic was muted during the Niti Aayog meeting that took place in the national capital on Saturday.
Rebuffing the TMC supremo’s allegation that her “microphone was switched off after five minutes”, the Union minister called the charge “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…She said in the media that her mic was put off. That is completely false,” Nirmala Sitharaman told news agency ANI.
She also criticised the Bengal chief minister for building a narrative based on “falsehood” and called it “unfortunate”.
“Every CM was given their due time to speak…It’s unfortunate that the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has claimed that her mic was switched off which is not true…She should speak the truth behind this rather than again build a narrative based on falsehood,” the Union minister said.
‘Mic muted before allotted time,’ says Mamata
The controversy erupted after Mamata Banerjee stormed out of the Niti Aayog’s council meeting, claiming that her mic was muted before the allotted time and that she should have been allowed to speak for at least half an hour.
“At the beginning, Rajnath ji said, ‘five to seven minutes’… I was not allowed even (those) seven minutes. I would have completed all that I had to say, even if the seven minutes were allowed. But they rang the bell at five minutes, and I said, okay then I shall leave… and I left.”
Mamata, who was the only INDIA bloc leader and CM from a non-BJP state to attend the PM Modi-chaired meeting, said she was “not an irresponsible person to not have maintained the time limit”.
“I was the only one (from opposition-governed states) present there; they should have allotted at least half an hour for me… and I am not an irresponsible person that I will not maintain my time,” she said.
Mentioning that she felt “humiliated” at what had happened, Mamata said, “I have no issues if some states get a bigger share… but that cannot mean some states get almost nothing… If you paralyse the states, Centre will get paralysed in the coming days.”
Bengal CM claims NDA-linked CMs spoke for long
Mamata Banerjee said chief ministers belonging to the BJP or NDA presented their views for 20 minutes but she was interrupted after five minutes which led her to boycott the meeting.
“Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh CM) presented his views for 20 minutes and CMs of Assam, Arunachal, Chhattisgarh and Goa also presented their views for 15, 16, 17, 20 minutes. But I spoke only for five minutes, and people started interrupting me by ringing the bell. I said, okay, you don’t want to listen to Bengal, and I boycotted the meeting and left,” Mamata said.
Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam rebutted Mamata’s charge, saying West Bengal officials continued to attend the meeting even after Mamata left.
Subrahmanyam said the West Bengal CM’s request to speak before lunch was accepted, though her turn would have come in the afternoon, going in alphabetical order of the states.
He added that when her time was up, defence minister Rajnath Singh just tapped the mic, and she stopped speaking and walked out. However, officials of West Bengal government continued to attend the meeting.
PIB fact checks Mamata’s claim
Hours after the Bengal CM’s claim, PIB fact-checked Mamata’s remark, saying “the clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it”.

INDIA bloc backs Bengal CM
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh condemned Centre over the “treatment” meted out to Mamata, calling it “unacceptable.”
“Its (Niti Aayog) functioning has been blatantly partisan… It muzzles all divergent and dissenting viewpoints, which are the very essence of an open democracy… Its treatment of the West Bengal CM today, although typical of the Niti Aayog, is unacceptable,” Ramesh posted on X.
Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin lashed out at the central government, saying the “BJP govt must understand that opposition parties are an integral part of our democracy”.
“Is this #CooperativeFederalism? Is this the way to treat a chief minister? The Union BJP government must understand that opposition parties are an integral part of our democracy and should not be treated as enemies to be silenced. Cooperative federalism requires dialogue and respect for all voices,” Stalin wrote on X.