Virtually brushing aside TamilNadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's angry walk out of the NDCmeeting today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said theelectronically imposed time limit had helped in accommodating40 speakers.
"I thank all Chief Ministers for complying with theelectronically imposed time limit. Had they not complied withthe limit, we would not have been able to accommodate 40speakers even in this long session," he said in a subtlereference to Jayalalithaa's action protesting against the timelimit of 10 minutes for each CM to speak at the meeting.
Angered by the limit on her speech, Jayalalithaa walkedout of the National Development Council (NDC) meeting,alleging "utter humiliation" and accusing the Centre of"stifling" the voice of Chief Ministers.
The Centre was quick to reject her charges ofdiscrimination, saying the Prime Minister had showed a gestureby giving her chance to speak out of turn, immediately afterhim, and that the same time limit applied to Congress ChiefMinisters as well.