'Humiliated, PM didn’t allow to speak', says Mamata Banerjee after Modi's Covid meet

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that she felt "humiliated" as she was not allowed to speak during the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Banerjee was present in the meeting with the Prime Minister on handling of Covid-19. The meeting was attended by DMs of 54 districts from 10 states including West Bengal with high Covid cases.

Banerjee said that it was unfortunate that after inviting the Chief Ministers, "the PM did not talk to us and we were not allowed to speak".

"If states were not allowed to speak why were they called. All the Chief Ministers must protest for not being allowed to speak," she said soon after the meeting was over, news agency ANI reported.

“Only some BJP Chief Ministers and the PM made small speeches and ended the meeting after this. It was a casual meeting,” she said.

“We feel humiliated. He never asked about vaccines or about remdesivir. He never asked about black fungus cases,” the Chief Minister said, adding that she wanted to raise the issue of vaccine shortage with the Prime Minister.

Earlier today, PM Modi chaired a high-level meeting with District Magistrates of 54 districts from 10 states with high caseloads of COVID-19 infections. Respective Chief Ministers were also present during the meeting.

He cautioned against Covid vaccine wastage, saying even single dose going waste denies someone protection shield. The Prime Minister also asked district officials to collect data on children being infected with Covid. Experts have warned that the third wave could affect children the most and called for ramping up the health infrastructure to deal with the situation.

Describing the virus as "dhoort" and "bahurupia" in Hindi, PM Modi said that the strategy to deal with the pandemic should be dynamic, innovative and constantly upgraded as he underlined the dangers posed by the virus which, he noted, is invisible and often mutates.