Except for Suriya Sivakumar, political ambitious Kollywood stars like Rajinikanth and Vijay have kept mum on the issue, which also dominated the political discourse of the State during the last fortnight. Suriya, in fact, has put the actor-politicians on the back foot.

Even Rajinikanth, who announced his political plunge over a year ago, is yet to make even a mention of the issue on his Twitter handle. Makkal Neethi Maiam leader Kamal Haasan was content with posting a few lines on his Twitter handle on National Education Policy (NEP) and NEET. Barring the usual, active Kollywood Twitterati like director Vetrimaran, Pa Ranjith, Mari Selvaraj and Naveen, not many from the Tamil tinsel world has come out openly against the controversy-ridden NEET. Suriya has surprised by not just calling out the entrance test, but describing it Manuneethi, a loaded statement that usually comes from the black shirt sporting Dravidar kazhagam constituency in the State. His “manuNEEThi test” statement, understandably, was given a rousing reception on social media with Periyarist and DMK followers celebrating the actor’s political stand.

A few enthusiastic members of the ‘Dravidian’ school had even used the statement to seek his political support in favour of the DMK for the ensuing election. Writer Mathimaran had publicly urged the actor to muster support for the DMK if he were committed in his stand of scrapping NEET.