Actor Vijay voices opposition to NEET, calls it 'anti-poor'

Chennai: Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) led by popular Tamil actor Vijay on Wednesday became the latest political party in Tamil Nadu to join the anti-NEET bandwagon as he termed the entrance exam as “anti-poor” and demanded that the Union Government immediately sanction exemption from the test to students from the state.

Speaking at an event to felicitate district toppers in 10th and 12th board exams, Vijay also made a strong push for state autonomy by urging that the subjects of education and health be brought under a Special Concurrent List and supported a resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly seeking scrapping of NEET across the country.

Vijay came under criticism last week for not talking about NEET, which concerns lakhs of students from the state, with political commentators seeking to question him on why he didn’t speak about the subject even as the whole country was talking about irregularities in the recent exams.

“I was not planning to speak today as I had spoken last week. But I wanted to speak to you about an important issue. It is nothing but NEET. Students from poorest of the poor, and poor are affected due to the exam. This is a fact and Tamil Nadu should be exempted from NEET,” Vijay told the students.

“The concept of ‘one nation, one curriculum, one selection’ is against the very idea of education,” Vijay said, adding that states should be allowed to decide on subjects like education and health.

Welcoming the state government’s resolution seeking exemption from NEET for the state, Vijay said he was with the DMK dispensation on this issue and batted for student’s rights. This is the first time that Vijay has made his stand on a political issue very clear with NEET already being an emotional issue in Tamil Nadu with over a dozen students ending their lives either due to fear of the exam or due to the fear of losing.

With this, all political parties, except the BJP, in Tamil Nadu are against NEET.

The 50-year-old actor, who is one of the highest-paid actors in the country and commands a huge fan base, has already announced that his party won’t contest any polls till 2026. Vijay wants to make use of the next two years to prepare his fans and supporters battle-ready for 2026, strengthen the party infrastructure, and elect office-bearers in a “democratic manner.”

The announcement by Vijay in February wasn’t surprising as the actor was preparing for his political outing for the past few months by constituting various wings for his Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, his fan club. The VMI already has 25 wings and all of them were reactivated recently, while the actor also launched an IT wing and advocates wing to face the political challenge.

Vijay also joins the long list of actors who have joined politics in Tamil Nadu starting from M G Ramachandran to J Jayalalithaa to Sivaji Ganesan to Vijayakanth, and Kamal Haasan.

While the first two made it big in politics like in the silver screen, the last three couldn’t register much success, though Vijayakanth briefly altered the bipolar politics in the state. Superstar Rajinikanth didn’t enter politics citing his ill-health after promising to launch a party and contest the 2021 elections.

Vijay’s political plunge is gutsy as no actor could recreate the MGR magic in about four decades in a state where over 75 per cent of the vote share is controlled by DMK and AIADMK, the Dravidian majors who have been ruling the state alternatively since 1967.