D Raja justifies INDIA bloc CMs boycotting NITI Aayog meet, blames Centre

It means the union government should treat all the state governments equally and there should be proper share of taxes and funds, but the union government is not doing that, D Raja added

CPI general secretary D Raja Saturday justified the decision of several chief ministers to boycott the Governing Council meetings of the NITI Aayog, claiming that certain actions of the Centre are behind their move.

Taxes and funds were not being shared properly by the central government, Raja alleged.

"The CMs who are boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting have certain issues. There are very genuine issues. The Central government's actions were responsible for it," Raja told reporters here.

Chief ministers of the INDIA bloc -- Stalin (DMK), Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M), Punjab's Bhagwant Mann (Aam Aadmi Party), Congress's Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) and Revanth Reddy (Telangana), and Jharkhand's Hemant Soren (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) -- skipped the NITI Aayog meeting.

Stating that the Constitution defines India (Bharat), as a union of states, Raja said: "It means the union government should treat all the state governments equally and there should be proper share of taxes and funds, but the union government is not doing that."

"Even though it is the mandate of the constitution, the union government is not doing that. There is some discriminatory approach from the union government and some states feel they are let down. Their voice is not respected and their demands are not considered," Raja said while supporting the CMs boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting.

He said the Union Government headed by Narendra Modi and the BJP, do not understand federalism.

"Mr Modi talks about cooperative federalism. Where is the cooperation between the central government and the state government? Where is federalism? Federalism is not just political, but fiscal federalism is also an integral part of our federal system of governance," he said.

"Mr Modi's government does not respect all these things," he alleged.

Raja pointed out that the old Planning Commission was dismantled and now NITI Aayog has been formed ever since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.

"What is the mandate of NITI Aayog? What are the policy decisions that the NITI Aayog can take when there is Parliament? All these questions are there. Therefore, the chief ministers have a point addressing these questions and demonstrating their protests, Raja said.