NEW DELHI: Exactly a week after subtly referring to BJP as his ideological foe and DMK as political enemy at his maiden political conference, actor Vijay led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) on Sunday passed resolutions against Centre’s NEET exam, push for ‘One Nation, One Election’, Waqf Amendment Bill and against the state government led by DMK for “deteriorating” law and order situation.
The resolution by the TVK opposed the “One Nation, One Election” initiative, dubbing it an anti-democratic move by the BJP-led Union government that threatens democratic principles. The party also passed a resolution pressing the Union government to withdraw the Waqf Amendment Bill, which is currently under deliberation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
The meeting chaired by Vjiay himself marked the first instance of a major organisational meeting after the actor-turned-politician laid out the political roadmap for his party last Sunday. The meeting was attended by district office bearers and the executive committee, where the party focused on ‘strengthening’ its organisational structure and passed resolutions.
Demanding a scrap of the NEET test, TVK also passed resolution demanding education be moved to the state list from the concurrent list of the Constitution. The actor’s party said its ‘ideology is secularism and social justice,’ which is a commitment to harmony and unity of all the people.
“According to our demand for State Autonomy policy, Education belongs to the State list. If the Union Government moves education to the State List, the state government can revoke NEET on its own. This executive committee opposes the Union Government’s obstacle to this and also opposes State DMK government for cheating Tamil Nadu people with fake promises,” the resolution on the NEET issue read, according to news agency PTI.
The TVK also hit out at the DMK for the alleged law and order situation marred with spike in drug cases, murder, theft, and other crimes.
Earlier, last Sunday, in what was his first political speech since he floated his party, actor Vijay said his party aims to be the primary force for change in Tamil Nadu, not merely an alternative to existing political players. Vijay criticised DMK’s portrayal of BJP as a fascist force. He said DMK was not fundamentally different: “You always keep screaming fascism, fascism, and continue scaremongering among minorities. If they are practising fascism, are you any different?”
Vijay accused DMK of hiding corruption with ideological rhetoric and fooling people by branding their administration as a “Dravidian model govt”. “Corrupt forces are governing Tamil Nadu,” he said. “We can identify divisive politics as it will expose itself.”
However, the remarks did not go down well with the ruling party, which said Vijay’s TVK copied its ideology ,referring to the actor’s similar stance to the DMK on issues like NEET, two language policy and more. The DMK also said Vijay’s TVK was the C team to BJP. And the AIADMK which did not find a indirect reference in Vijay’s maiden speech, has asked its workers not to criticize Vijay.
Specific instructions were reportedly given to AIADMK party spokespersons that none should criticise Vijay since he has not spoken ill of AIADMK.