Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and several leaders of the DMK-led front on Thursday strongly condemned a Tamil daily for having published a front-page news report denigrating the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme, which was recently extended across government-run schools in Tamil Nadu.
Sporadic protests broke out in some places against the daily. On the micro-blogging website X [formerly Twitter], Mr. Stalin posted an image of the report in certain editions of the Tamil daily Dinamalar, which said: “Toilets in schools were overflowing because students were eating double meals.”
“If the paper can publish a lead news story [like this] at a time when Chandrayaan has landed on the moon, what would it have done hundred years ago? What would have been the condition of those who are on the margins of society? The evil intent has not disappeared,” Mr. Stalin said.
The Dravidian Movement, he said, was launched to create an inclusive society and protect social justice at a time when “a section would toil and another section would just eat and fatten itself”.
He added: “The rule of the Dravidian Movement demolished the dictum that a shudra could be given anything but education, and created a revolution in the field of education.” “I condemn the Dinamanu,” he said, hinting that it was a paper of Manu Sastra.
Expressing regret over the issue, K. Ramasubbu, editor of Dinamalar, said that the editions under his control in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Puducherry, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil had not carried the news report. “Only two editions in Erode and Salem, under the editorship of R. Sathyamurthy, had published the news,” he said on X.
MDMK general secretary Vaiko said the report had exposed the “Aryan and Sanathana mindset” of the daily, which was against social justice. “People of Tamil Nadu will teach the daily a fitting lesson.”
CPI(M) State secretary K. Balakrishnan said the daily, “motivated by evil intent and perversion”, should tender an open apology to the people. “It (the Breakfast scheme) needs to be extended all over the country. But ...The newspaper has published a detestable and loathsome news. It has always been against the interests of the working class, minorities and the scheduled caste,” he said. VCK founder Thol. Thirumavalavan said the report reflected hatred not only against the scheme, but also against the poor, and sought legal action against the daily.
Various groups, including the students’ wing of Left parties and the May 17 Movement, protested against the daily.
Members of the May 17 Movement gathered near Clock Tower, Royapettah, and held placards condemning the publication and also burnt papers on the roads. Members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India protested in the same venue, but separately.
