CMs who skipped NITI Aayog meet did injustice to their people: Piyush Goyal

Mumbai, Jul 27 (PTI) Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the chief ministers of opposition-governed states have done injustice to their people by skipping the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference here, Goyal said these CMs lost an opportunity to ask questions.

“NITI Aayog belongs to all. The opposition needs to look within. They have done injustice to the people of the states ruled by them,” said Goyal, who was recently elected to the Lok Sabha from Mumbai North constituency.

Chief Ministers from the INDIA bloc – M K Stalin (DMK) of Tamil Nadu, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M), Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann (AAP), Congress’ Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), and Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren (JMM) – skipped the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, also an INDIA ally, walked out of the meeting claiming she was humiliated as she was not allowed to speak.

Opposition parties have alleged the states ruled by them were ignored in the Union Budget presented recently in the Lok Sabha.

Goyal said the Union Budget presented earlier this week needs to be looked through the context of continuity with the interim budget.

Asked about NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar’s comment on Amit Shah’s externment from Gujarat, Goyal said Pawar was an important part of the “UPA government’s conspiracy against Shah and the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi".

“The UPA had levelled a false case against Amit Shah,” he said.

Responding to Shah’s “ringleader of corrupt people” jibe for Pawar, the NCP (SP) chief had said on Friday, “The one who was externed by the Supreme Court is holding charge of the Union Home Ministry now.” Shah was discharged in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case.

"Sharad Pawar must apologise to the people of the country for this false allegation," Goyal said.

The Supreme Court's order exposed the UPA, Congress and NCP, he said.

The case against Amit Shah was completely baseless and false (and was foisted) because his popularity was high and they (Opposition) were going to lose the next election.

"They were trying to save themselves from defeat by attacking the then chief minister of Gujarat Modiji and Amit Shah ji," Goyal said.

He was implicated in a false case and the court finally acquitted him of all charges, the Union minister added. PTI