When Jayalalithaa walked out of the National Development Council meeting

The Hindu

6 days ago

On December 27, 2012, the Chief Ministers of various States and Union Territories and Union Ministers had assembled at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi for the 57th meeting of the National Development Council (NDC). Representing Tamil Nadu was Jayalalithaa, who was elected to the office the previous year. State Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam, Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi, and senior officials had accompanied her to the meeting convened to finalise the draft of the 12th Five Year Plan.
The NDC, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was a forum for decision-making and deliberations on matters of development. After Singh delivered his opening remarks, the Chief Ministers were called one by one to address the gathering, each allotted a time slot of 10 minutes.
Bell rang
When Jayalalithaa's turn came, she began addressing the meeting. After 10 minutes, a bell was rung to signal that her time was over. As the bell sounded, Jayalalithaa, who had not yet completed her speech, became upset. She walked out of the hall with the Tamil Nadu delegation.
Quoting sources, The Hindu reported that Jayalalithaa had only reached the 10th page of a 28-page speech when the bell was rung. The Prime Minister, who was conducting the proceedings, then called the next speaker: Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy.
Speaking to journalists outside the venue, Jayalalithaa accused the Centre of stifling the voice of the Chief Ministers. 'The voice of the Chief Ministers has been stifled. They were not allowed to speak freely. At the very beginning, we were told that only 10 minutes would be allotted to each Chief Minister and after that a bell would ring. This is unheard of. This has never been the practice before... If this is the way they are going to treat the Chief Ministers, the Centre could stop calling such conferences and stop inviting us. We have got enough work back home,' The Hindu quoted her as saying.
Jayalalithaa said she had attended many such conferences, including the earlier NDC meetings and the Chief Ministers' conferences, where no such practice had been adopted. 'This is an utter humiliation of a Chief Minister who has come all the way to Delhi to present the views of the State government, in the interest of the welfare of the people of Tamil Nadu and in the national interest,' she said.
She also alleged that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government (of which the DMK was a constituent) was discriminatory. 'Those who supported the Centre were allowed to speak for 30 or 35 minutes and even more. At the last conference that I attended, the Assam Chief Minister was allowed to speak for more than 35 minutes. It is impossible to convey the views of the State government in such a short period as 10 minutes. This is not democracy. The NDC meeting had turned out to be an exercise in humiliation,' Jayalalithaa said.
Manmohan's 'gesture'
The Centre swiftly rejected her allegations, denying any discrimination between the Congress- and non-Congress-ruled States. Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla said, 'The Prime Minister showed a gesture by giving an opportunity to her to speak first, immediately after his speech, though her turn was to come much later.'
He said that with a long list of speakers — including 35 Chief Ministers, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, the Finance Minister, and the Agriculture Minister — the time limit had to be enforced uniformly. 'The same arrangement was made for the Chief Ministers of the Congress- and non-Congress-ruled States. The buzzer was pressed even for the Congress Chief Ministers. So where was the discrimination? The leaders should not make political capital out of such events,' Mr. Shukla said.
According to him, the NDC meeting should be used by the Chief Ministers to achieve something for the people of their States instead of 'making an issue out of a non-issue'.
Mixed response
Her walkout received a mixed response in political circles. While BJP Chief Ministers Narendra Modi (Gujarat and now the Prime Minister) and Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh and now Union Minister for Agriculture) supported Jayalalithaa's action, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan (Congress) welcomed the system of limiting the speech of the Chief Ministers to 10 minutes, saying all the States were being treated equally. Mr. Modi had said sarcastically, 'The less they hear, the better it is for them [the Centre],' The Hindu reported.
Meanwhile, DMK president M. Karunanidhi criticised Jayalalithaa's reaction, calling it an 'exaggeration'. He said, 'The Chief Minister's speech (in text form) appeared in newspapers. It would have taken more than an hour, had she read out the entire speech.' In a letter to his party members, Karunanidhi questioned the practicality of allowing all Chief Ministers to read out their full speech. 'Therefore, it is an exaggeration to say that Tamil Nadu was insulted. It is not a genuine allegation,' he said, adding that even in the State Assemblies, a bell would be rung to remind members of the time limit.