Kishore and Pradeep Ranganathan have become the first few recognised actors from Tamil cinema to speak out against law enforcement action against the students who participated in the NEET protest and demanded the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Delhi. Taking to his X handle, Pradeep shared, "Don’t answer questions with lathis," followed by a Neet hashtag.
On the other hand, Kishore appeared on video and questioned the government's action against NEET protest participants. In the video, the actor said, "Salute to my dear little soldiers. My soldiers of love, peace, integrity, solidarity, and nonviolence. Salute to you, our future. It takes a lot of courage to stand there and get beaten up without retaliating. There cannot be a braver force than you."
The actor added, "The police and the RSS goons who beat you up there are cowards. Only cowards resort to violence. Their brutality towards little kids prove Mr Modi's claim that he is non-biological. Anyone who is human, with even a little humanity, could not have ordered such an inhuman attack on those kids."
Kishore insinuated that the BJP government played a part in journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder and that the latest law enforcement action continues the party's history of violence. "And with this government and their history of violence and hate, from Gandhi to Godhra to Gauri, not much can be expected. And to top all that, they spread lies, trying to brand even little kids as anti-nationals using their traitor force—the Godi media, the IT cells, and the andhbhakts (blind devotees)."
Kishore suggested that the BJP must accept their mistakes first for self-correction and said that nobody from the government's side is ready to do so. "When no one in this government is ready to accept their mistakes, the PM does not even bother to utter even a single word to console the kids who were killed because of the failure of his government for two months," the actor said.
Kishore is known for famously saying that if he had a chance to go back in time to 2014 and make a change, he would change the Prime Minister. "We have been seeing a lot of negatives all around these years. These needs to be changed," the actor said.
Kishore also insinuated that Home Minister Amit Shah "employs goons," who are "armed with nailed lathis to beat up the kids." The actor also questioned people's decision to vote for the BJP, saying he does not have any hope left for change in the future. He also urged people not to "forget our history" and vote against the government for its latest police action and not vote in the name of caste or religion. Explaining this, he said, "Education system cannot change with the resignation of one minister, but the whole system is corrupt, unapologetic and unaccountable. Only a political change can bring about a change in the whole system. So let us keep this fight alive, from vote to vote, election to election, let us hold these politicians accountable for each of their acts or each of their decisions."
