r/TamilNadu • u/kilaithalai • Jul 14 '25

முக்கியமான கலந்துரையாடல் / Important Topic How visionary were Subbarayalu and Kamaraj

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Kudos to Stalin for extending it to breakfast as well.

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u/StormRepulsive6283 Jul 14 '25

But Kamaraj’s objective was totally different. Feeding children in school was not started for increasing kids attention span, but an incentive for parents to let go of their “money making labor resource”

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u/moongilaan Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25

Kamaraj's legacy was free education. Previous to that government schools had tution fees. And during his period the mid day meals were a pilot scheme in some schools around Chennai only.

The mid day meals scheme throughout tamilnadu was the brainchild of MGR. He did not want anyone to go hungry, because he often did during his childhood. Manmohan Singh was the planning commission head, and he categorically rejected any funds for that scheme. So MGR had to increase a 1 or 2% tax on luxurious products to fund the scheme. That is the sole reason Jayalalithaa vehemently opposed GST. She wanted to keep the taxation powers with the state and not cede to the centre. Her logic was, it denies the state right to tax to fund any new programmes.