Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay hit back at critics who have labelled his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam an 'actor's party', and served up a pointed reminder of the TVK's success in the April-May election in an Assembly speech Tuesday morning. In a powerful address that pulled at many threads - from the centre's 'imposition' of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states to demands to scrap the NEET - he rebuked doubters and critics of the TVK's political staying power and his administrative nous. Vijay reminded the Assmebly his party overcame "conspiracies and restrictions" and that neither it nor he had any intention of fading away. "We didn't get power easily. Only we know the struggles we faced to get a place in the heart of the Tamil people… a few will act as if they don't understand and criticise us, saying, 'he is just an actor and the party is just an actor's party'.