Boycott by any Chief Minister of Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting is not good for nation building

The seventh meeting of the Governing Council of Niti Aayog on Sunday, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a good occasion for the political class to thrash out the most important national issues. The Council comprises, apart from the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers of all states and Union Territories with legislature, Lt Governors of other UTs, ex-officio Members, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman, and Niti Aayog full-time Members. Union Ministers were special invitees. That this was the first in-person meeting of the Council after the pandemic made it even more important. Agriculture, especially self-sufficiency in oilseeds and pulses, topped the agenda. National Education Policy and urban governance were other important subjects discussed at the conference. The Government wanted the Council to finalise a roadmap and outcome-oriented action plans. So, by any reckoning, it was a very important meeting. But, unfortunately, it was politicised. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced that he would stay away from the meeting as a mark of strong protest against the present trend of the Central government to discriminate against the states and not treat them as equal partners. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s, also missed the meeting. It may be mentioned here that Kumar also didn’t attend a dinner hosted by PM Modi for the newly elected President Droupadi Murmu.

Political parties will hurl allegations and counter-allegations at each other for the absence of some Chief Ministers, but this will just generate a lot of heat and dust, which already aplenty in the political arena. It is unfortunate that politics has been reduced to petty politicking, scoring brownie points, and one-upmanship; such things happen in every democracy, but there is also meaningful discussion and informed debate, in legislative chambers and outside them. But, sadly, that is no longer the case in India. Self-righteousness is the disease that afflicts all parties; now political adversaries are not seen as leaders who have a different viewpoint but as enemies. The Niti Aayog Governing Council is a perfect forum where both the Central and state governments can express their views and present the problems they face in formulating and executing policies. The Chief Ministers who refuse to attend it actually lose the opportunity to tell the country that they feel discriminated against; in a way, they banish themselves out of a major national forum. The Centre too must share some portion of the blame; some acts of omission and commission are responsible for the mistrust. All political parties must ponder over a couple of simple questions: Should every interaction between them be marked with bombastic acrimony and self-righteousness? Should they exchange charges all the time? One hopes that all chief ministers attend the next meeting of the Niti Aayog Governing Council or any such gathering.