Director Karu Palaniappan, who has been campaigning for the DMK-led alliance, took a dig at actor-politician Kamal Haasan for hinting that NEET aspirant Anita’s family knew whom not to vote for. This claim led Anitha’s brother Maniratnam to issue a clarification saying he admired Kamal but his vote was for Thol Thirumavalavan, chief of the VCK party. Anitha had impleaded herself as one of the respondents in a Supreme Court case challenging NEET, but committed suicide soon after.
In the widely-shared video that was posted recently, Kamal was seen breaking a TV after listening to others’ political campaigns. He warned people to not vote for the wrong candidate. “Ask the parents of the girl whom the whole government conspired to kill. They will tell you who not to vote for. When people who are not qualified are leading this nation, I ask this as someone who is one of you,” he said.
In response, Anita’s brother wrote a Facebook post clarifying, “Like brother Kamal said, my family and I are certain about who not to vote for. We will never vote for the fascist BJP party. When Anitha died, the man who said he won’t let this go was Thirumavalavan, the candidate from our constituency. DMK is a party that has the power to stop the Centre from conducting NEET. It’s a party that upholds justice, and will not give up the rights of Tamil Nadu.”
Maniratnam also added that the alliance lead by DMK has ensured that the Congress manifesto promised the removal of NEET. “Therefore, our vote is for the DMK-led alliance candidate Thirumavalavan (he is a deserving candidate).”
Karu Palaniappan reportedly brought this up and sarcastically thanked Kamal for campaigning for Thirumavalavan. The director has been extremely critical of the BJP and has called it out for its casteist, communal politics and non-support on various issues such as the Pollachi sexual assault case and the demand to scrap NEET. He has also criticised Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam for its unclear stand on issues.
In a recent interview, he asked if Kamal Haasan’s only solution was to bring in educated candidates and say they won’t be corrupt. “I don’t know if he knows, but the first person in independent India who was accused of corruption was TT Krishnamachari – a highly educated person. In fact, when an educated person does something wrong it’s harder to investigate it. Should all this (anti-corruption) be Kamal’s politics or should we look at what good he has done for the people?”
He further urged people to speak up during elections. He said that it was important that support is given to Thirumavalavan before the election too. “Speak in support of him. He is one of the most important candidates today. He is a capable politician who can govern from a common ground. I have seen him from my school days… today, he is someone who puts across his view points with clarity. It is very important that he wins.”
