Miffed Jayalalithaa creates flutter by walkout from NDC meeting

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi indirectly supported Jayalalithaa's stance and said the central government did not want to hear at length from chief ministers of states ruled by opposition.

"The less they get to hear, the better," he said.

Jayalalithaa was scathing in her attack on the central government in her written speech and said it was indifferent to reducing poverty and was busy conspiring against the common man to facilitate foreign investors.

She said the central government is caught in the daily squabbles of its constituents, merely trying to survive from day to day, and has neither the time nor the inclination to pay attention to the problems of the people of this country.

Wondering what the purpose of the NDC meeting was, Jayalalithaa pointed out that the country was already nearly three-quarters of the way into the first year of the Twelfth Plan.