Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin dines students during the launch of the expansion of the state government's breakfast scheme for school children, at Tirukkuvali.
Credit: PTI Photo
A popular Tamil newspaper on Thursday stoked a row by carrying a front page news item "mocking" and “demeaning” the popular Breakfast Scheme, triggering a sharp response from Chief Minister M K Stalin, who said the article only reflected its “Sanathana character".
Dinamalar, in its Salem and Erode editions, carried a news article with a headline, ‘Breakfast Scheme: Students get two-square meals, toilets are overflowing in schools’ with pictures of the food being served to students from class one to five in government schools in the state.
The news article said since students have their breakfast in school, they get the urge to rush to washrooms, which are “overcrowded” for the past one week. Dinamalar, known for its links to right-wing organisations and which takes a pro-BJP stand, had come under criticism in the past as well for mocking welfare schemes implemented by the Dravidian parties, DMK and AIADMK.
In a terse and strong statement, Stalin said the Dravidian Movement was born to achieve social justice by mooting "everything for everyone" when propagators of Manu Smrithi were exploiting the working class and the oppressed.
“It was the Dravidian rule that smashed the principle of ‘don’t give education to Shudras’ by unleashing an education revolution in Tamil land,” Stalin said. “If Sanathanam (those propagating Sanathana Dharma) can give such a headline in the 21st century when we send spacecrafts to the Moon, what would it have done 100 years ago. What would have been the condition of the oppressed? That grudge hasn’t gone away,” Stalin added.
“I express my strong condemnation to #Dinamanu (a newspaper that spreads Manu Dharma every day),” the Chief Minister said in his statement.
Following Stalin’s statement, DMK cadres took out rallies in several places across the state condemning Dinamalar for mocking the scheme, which is now implemented in all 31,000 primary schools across Tamil Nadu, benefitting over 17 lakh students.
Several political leaders and social media users condemned Dinamalar for the article and sought an apology from the newspaper. “The Dravidian Model looks at whether schools are overflowing; the Aryan model looks at whether toilets are overflowing,” DMK youth wing chief Udhayanidhi said.