Narendra Modi's COVID-19 meeting super flop, chief ministers reduced to puppets, says Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with chief ministers on the COVID situation was a “super flop”, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that she and her counterparts from many states were not allowed to speak, which was akin to an “insult”. She also claimed that only chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states were allowed to speak at the meeting, while others were “reduced to puppets”. Follow LIVE updates on COVID-19 “This was a casual and super flop meeting. Only CMs of BJP-ruled states were allowed to speak and others were reduced to puppets. We feel insulted and humiliated. This is an attempt to bulldoze the federal structure of the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is so insecure that he did not listen to us,” Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’. She said the prime minister neither asked how West Bengal is handling the COVID situation and nor did he enquire about the stock of vaccines or oxygen. “There was not a single question from the prime minister about the ‘black fungus’,” she said, adding that four such cases have been detected in the state. Referring to Modi’s claim that the COVID-19 caseload is reducing in the country, Banerjee asked, “If the total number of cases is declining, why are so many deaths due to the coronavirus infection being reported.” The chief minister also alleged that the Centre has “no proper plans” in dealing with the COVID situation in the country.