Anurag Thakur slams opposition parties for using Niti Aayog platform to 'play politics'

    Chandigarh, Jul 28 (PTI) BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Sunday hit out at the opposition party-ruled states for skipping the Niti Aayog meeting, accusing them of playing politics. He asserted that the Niti Aayog platform is for discussion, feedback and policy-making.
    Several chief ministers representing the opposition INDIA bloc parties skipped the Niti Aayog meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27.
    It included chief ministers of Congress-ruled states Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana. Besides, the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Kerala also stayed away from the meeting.
    Thakur alleged that they were trying to use the Niti Aayog platform to play politics.
    "We had been in the opposition and at that time it was the Planning Commission. Our chief ministers used to go and put forward their issues," he said.
    "Do the elected representatives of the states want to keep themselves away from this system just to do politics?" asked the former Union minister.
    We have seen the same in Parliament in the last few years, he said, adding that the opposition only wanted to create a ruckus.
    Replying to a charge by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann that the Union Budget "ignored" Punjab, Thakur said, "It is a Union Budget. In it, the detail according to each state is not given."
    Rubbishing the charge of opposition parties, Thakur said that no discrimination took place against any state in the Budget.
    On the death of three students in Delhi due to flooding in the basement of a coaching centre, Thakur slammed the AAP government in the national capital, asking if it is the Arvind Kejriwal model.
    "Today what they have done to Delhi? Three youths drown in the basement in the national capital. Is it the Arvind Kejriwal model? Is it the AAP model," he asked.
    "Ask the families who lost their children. What they are going through," he said.
    The UPSC aspirants -- two females and a male -- lost their lives as they were trapped inside the library running in the basement of the Old Rajinder Nagar-based Rau's IAS Study Circle, which was flooded due to rain in the national capital on Saturday.
    Replying to a question on minimum support price (MSP), Thakur said that it was the Narendra Modi government which implemented the Swaminathan Commission report.
    During the previous 10-year UPA regime, the purchase at MSP was Rs 5.50 lakh crore while during the NDA regime, it was Rs 18.40 lakh crore, he said.
    He said the government is committed to raise farmers' income and reduce its input cost.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)