Actors, politicians should not play with students’ lives: BJP leader

Coimbatore: Actors and politicians should not make statements that would affect the students’ future for personal gains, state BJP vice-president Vanathi Srinivasan said on Tuesday while responding to a question on actor Suriya’s statement against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
The suicide of medical aspirants was unfortunate, Vanathi said and expressed condolences to their families. “But Suriya’s statement sounds as if there should be no competitive exams for students at all. There has to be some scale to measure the abilities of students. Surya should first clarify his statement.”
The BJP leader said they had earlier responded to Suriya’s criticism of the National Education Policy.
Referring to the actor’s statement that courts were dispensing justice through video conferencing because of the pandemic while students were asked to appear for exams, the BJP leader said courts were institutions that had to function every day. “But exams are held just for a day and if they are held with proper safety measures, an academic year would not be wasted.”
She also urged Suriya to refrain from making statements like movie dialogues and not to play with students’ future. “Let your movies run well. But don’t push students into darkness.”
The BJP leader also took a dig at the DMK. Pointing out that NEET was brought in by the Congress government in which the DMK was a part, she said the Dravidian party, which was silent then, was opposing the exam now. “Earlier, the DMK opposed Hindi, depriving students of opportunities. And now it is doing the same with NEET. We are creating awareness on NEET among students.”
Meanwhile, K Ramakrishnan, general secretary of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, said, if Suriya’s statement on courts, which the actor made considering students’ welfare, was construed as a mistake, then they ‘would also do the same mistake’ by repeating the statement. “How is this a crime? How is this contempt of court?”
It is to be noted that Madras high court judge justice S M Subramaniam had written to the HC chief justice, seeking contempt proceedings against the actor.