Delhi: Eight Chief Ministers are skipping the NITI Aayog Council meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi today. Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has cited health reasons for not attending, and Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has not given any specific reason for his absence.
Arvind Kejriwal wrote to the PM on Friday, announcing his boycott of the meeting over the Centre’s recent ordinance, and charged that cooperative federalism in the country was being turned into a “joke”. The controversial ordinance by the BJP-led Centre effectively cancels a May 11 Supreme Court order that granted the Delhi government executive control over the bureaucracy.
Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann has written a note to the Centre saying it’s not paying attention to Punjab’s interests, which is why he will boycott the meeting. In the previous meeting, in August last year, the Chief Minister had raised the issues of Rural Development Fund (RDF), stubble burning, and farmers’ concerns which he says the Centre paid no attention to. Calling it a mere “photo session”, Mr Mann in his note has said there’s no use in participating in the meeting until pending issues have been addressed.
Three other prominent Opposition leaders — Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Bihar’s Nitish Kumar — who have been trying to stitch together a grand united Opposition front to counter the BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha elections, are also skipping the meeting.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who maintains a calculated distance from both the NDA and the Opposition, was also absent from the meeting. According to the Chief Minister’s Office, Mr Patnaik did not attend the meeting as he has a prior programme.
The BJP said the missing Chief Ministers did not bring the voice of the people to a crucial planning meeting, where over a hundred issues were listed to be discussed. NITI Aayog is a significant platform to evolve a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors and strategies with the active involvement of states, it said, adding that it’s an important body for determining the entire policy-framework and the road map for the development of the entire country.
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