Kingmaker Kamaraj Birthday

"Face the problem. Don't evade it. Find a solution, however small. People will be satisfied if you do something." - By the Great Leader of an integrity and simplicity Kamaraj to his government, were his rule was considered as a Golden Times of Tamil Nadu.

Kamaraj who born on 15 July, 1903, in Virudhunagar of Tamil Nadu, form a trading family, was lived as integrity and simple himself. He was a drop out from school, but a great genius who realized the important of education, has educated himself during his imprisonment in freedom struggle. Being interested in politics, he skips his job in his uncle’s cloth shop and attends public meetings, but his relatives disappointed in his interest and send to Thiruvananthapuram to timer shop.

At the age of 16, as a full-time Congress worker, he also participated in the march to Vedaranyam as part of the Salt Satyagraha. Kamaraj was arrested when he was 27 and sent to Jail in Calcutta for two years. Kamaraj was arrested again for two times and sent to Vellore Central Prison while he was on his way to Wardha to get Gandhiji's approval for a list of satyagrahis and sentenced to three years in the Amaravathi prison for spreading propaganda material for the Quit India movement initiated by Gandhiji. Who can do than our Kamaraj who went straight to the Municipality and tendered his resignation from his post of Municipal Council of Madurai to felt that one should not accept any post to which one could not do full justice.

Kamaraj's political guru and inspiration was S. Satyamurti, orator and parliamentarian. Both developed a deep friendship and complemented each others' skills. In 1936, Satyamurti was elected President of the Provincial Congress Committee and he appointed Kamaraj the General Secretary. After becoming a Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu his most important aim was on the education that he didn’t got. So he removed the family vocation based Hereditary Education Policy and reopened the 6000 schools closed by previous government for financial reasons and also added 12000 more schools. The State made immense strides in education and trade. New schools were opened, so that poor rural students were to walk no more than 3 miles to their nearest school; Better facilities were added to existing ones; No village remained without a primary school and no panchayat without a high school. Kamaraj strove to eradicate illiteracy by introducing free and compulsory education up to the eleventh standard and also introduced the Mid-day Meal Scheme to provide at least one meal per day to the millions of poor school children at the first time in the whole world. He introduced free school uniforms to weed out caste, creed and class distinctions among young minds.

Kamaraj remained Chief Minister for three consecutive terms. On October 2, 1963, he resigned from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Post and proposed that all senior Congress leaders should resign form their posts and devote all their energy to the re-vitalization of the Congress. He also suggested to Nehru that senior Congress leaders should leave ministerial posts to take up organizational work to be known as Kamaraj Plan, which was designed primarily to dispel from the minds of Congressmen the lure for power, creating in its place a dedicated attachment to the objectives and policies of the organisation. Well impressed by the achievements and acumen of Kamraj, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru felt that his services were needed more at the national level. In a swift move he brought Kamaraj to Delhi as the President of the Indian National Congress.

Becoming a 'Congress President' and successfully navigated the party and the nation through the stormy years following Nehru's death. Kamaraj’s political maturity came in full view when Nehru died in 1964. How he settled the succession issue for the Prime Ministership was amply proved by his choice of Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi in succession. On October 2, 1975, Gandhi Jayanti day, Kamaraj awoke from his afternoon nap feeling uneasyand the next morning he left this world in his sleep. He was honored with the highest civilian honour, the 'Bharat Ratna' posthumously in 1976.