Prateek Tanmay
3 min readJul 21, 2026 09:26 PM IST
TAMIL RAPPER, lyricist and activist Arivu, whose music has often blended folk traditions with pointed social commentary, was briefly detained by Chennai police on Tuesday while leading a surprise protest outside the Tamil Nadu Secretariat, demanding the abolition of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). He was released soon afterwards and invited to meet Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
Police said Arivu, whose given name is Arivarasu Kalainesan, and a small group of protesters gathered near the entrance of the Secretariat, a high-security zone, and started raising slogans calling for NEET to be scrapped. They also protested against the police action on students who had marched from Jantar Mantar to Parliament in New Delhi over the NEET paper leak issue.
A senior police officer said Arivu and three others were taken into custody as they were staging a protest in the prohibited zone. They were released after some time.
Arivu received an invitation from the offices of the Chief Minister and state Minister for Public Works and Sports Development Aadhav Arjuna. He was seen being escorted by police officers to the CM’s chamber after they reached inside the Secretariat in a police van.
Protest against NEET continues to resonate strongly in Tamil Nadu, where the entrance examination has long been a politically charged issue, with critics arguing that it disadvantages students from rural, government schools and economically weaker backgrounds.
Arivu’s detention carried political significance beyond the protest itself. He has long been identified with Chennai’s vibrant Dalit cultural movement, and also associated with filmmaker Pa Ranjith, who was among the first to condemn the police action on students.
Senior police officers acknowledged that the protest caught them off guard, describing it as an unexpected flash demonstration by someone personally known to the Chief Minister and some of the senior-most Cabinet ministers. The use of force in detaining him therefore came as a surprise to many observers.
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The episode is also politically sensitive for the ruling TVK, as Dalit youth form an important segment of the coalition of first-time and urban voters that helped the party sweep much of Chennai in the recent Assembly elections.
Arivu, one of Tamil independent music’s most recognisable voices, has built his career by combining rap with gaana, folk traditions and anti-caste politics. A member of Chennai’s Casteless Collective, he first gained widespread national recognition through the 2021 independent hit Enjoy Enjaami, whose lyrics drew on his grandmother’s history as a plantation labourer and explored themes of land, labour and social justice. The song became one of the most successful Tamil independent releases globally.
Beyond independent music, Arivu has written and performed several popular film songs. His detention quickly drew political reactions. Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin condemned the police action, accusing the TVK government of attempting to silence voices opposing NEET. In a post on X, he said those speaking against the examination should be heard rather than arrested, describing Arivu’s intervention as reflecting the sentiments of millions and reiterating his demand for the examination’s abolition.
