Chennai, Jun 23: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay hit back at critics who have labelled his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam an ‘actor’s party’, and served up a pointed reminder of the TVK’s success in the April-May election in an Assembly speech Tuesday morning.
In a powerful address that pulled at many threads – from the centre’s ‘imposition’ of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states to demands to scrap the NEET – he rebuked doubters and critics of the TVK’s political staying power and his administrative nous.
Vijay reminded the Assmebly his party overcame “conspiracies and restrictions” and that neither it nor he had any intention of fading away. “We didn’t get power easily.
Only we know the struggles we faced to get a place in the heart of the Tamil people… a few will act as if they don’t understand and criticise us, saying, ‘he is just an actor and the party is just an actor’s party’.”
“We don’t bother with such criticism. Our politics is transparent. We got 35 per cent of the votes. Some are saying we came to power too easily… but we faced conspiracies and restrictions. We faced everything… and we are here. Still miles to go.”
On the row over NEET – the National Entrance-Eligibility Test, which is a single qualifying exam for admission to medical courses in the country – Vijay said the system “creates inequality” and called for it to be scrapped.
The NEET has been the source of significant controversy over the past few years, from students dying by suicide because of the pressure to leaked question papers that undermine the credibility of medical education in the country. Tamil Nadu has repeatedly called for the exam to be scrapped and for seats to be allotted based on Class 12 marks.
And on the ‘imposition’ of Hindi – an emotive issue in the southern state, which has witnessed violent riots on this topic in the past – the new chief minister insisted the existing two-language policy, i.e., Tamil (as the state language) and English (as a global langauge) remains sufficient.
On the Karur stampede – at an election rally Vijay was scheduled to address – he said: “I can’t express my pain about the tragedy where 41 people lost their lives.
That pain will never leave me. But even that blame they put on us. Atrocious. Is politics this cruel?”
The pushback was widely seen as referring to the previously in-power Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and ex-chief minister MK Stalin, who had directly blamed Vijay and the TVK for the stampede, declaring neither had followed crowd control measures advised by the police.
The actor-politician then offered a brief political history lesson, recalling the 1967 and 1977 elections, won by the CN Annadurai-led DMK and its later arch-rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by the Tamil OG actor-politician-chief minister, MG Ramachandran.
“In 1967 Anna (i.e., Annadurai) formed the government for the common people. In 1977 MGR formed the government for the common people.
Now, in 2026, Vijay’s government is for the common people,” he said, for good measure also jabbing the DMK over dynastic politics.
“Our politics is not about giving importance to one family (referring obliquely to DMK boss Stalin and his son, ex-deputy chief minister and heir Udhayanidhi Stalin) … but to each family in Tamil Nadu. That is our politics… our governance,” he asserted.
