Chennai:
Questioning Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's walkout at the chief ministers' meeting, DMK President M Karunanidhi on Thursday said it was a normal practice to stipulate time for making speeches. However, he said he would condemn it if she has indeed been humiliated.
"(If they) had humiliated her, I condemn it," he told reporters in Chennai in response to Ms Jayalalithaa storming out of the National Development Council meeting in Delhi, saying she faced humiliation of being stopped from completing her speech.
The AIADMK supremo had alleged that a bell rang after ten minutes while she was making her address, which she said was "humiliating," and charged that voices of Chief Ministers of non-Congress ruled states were being "stifled."
Recalling that he himself had participated in such NDC meetings and conference of Chief Ministers, Mr Karunanidhi, a former Chief Minister, said the text of speeches were printed in advance and the Chief Ministers concerned should speak within their allotted time, with the rest treated as read.
"That is the practice in Chief Ministers' conference and I have seen that. Today, she acted differently and had sought that she be allowed to speak ahead as she had to return to Chennai. She was given ten minutes as was the case with other Chief Ministers also," Mr Karunanidhi, whose party is an ally of UPA, said.
"A bell rings after ten minutes but that doesn't mean the speech has to be ended and one can continue for another five or ten minutes. Even I have spoken like that," the 88-year old arch-rival of Ms Jayalalithaa, said.