Out of bounds

After Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's walkout at last year's all-state chief ministers' meet, on grounds of not being given a fair hearing, the Centre bent over backwards to prevent a repeat during her state's annual plan discussion with the Planning Commission in Delhi. Officials say not only was Yojana Bhavan entirely secured by her own state police before she arrived, the chief minister ensured that even Delhi-based media was debarred from entering the building. This lockdown is unprecedented; till last year, chief ministers interacted freely with journalists during their annual visits to the Commission. With elections round the corner, however, politicians are increasingly inclined to avoid the media. Jayalalithaa would have been particularly anxious to do so since there would inevitably have been questions regarding her party's pre-poll alliances following the developments in the Bharatiya Janata Party's camp.