CHENNAI: Journalist Lakshmi Subramanian has accepted Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit’s apology for a cheek-patting gesture but with a disclaimer. The gesture was found offensive by many and made the governor apologised for it.
The Chancellor of the University of Madras Mr Purohit had called a press conference on Monday after a professor at Devanga Arts College, accused of asking her students to agree to sexual favours for degrees, had claimed she knows the governor, who is the chancellor of the university. The incident took place in Raj Bhavan on Tuesday when the journalist attending a press meeting raised a question as he got up and to leave.
Mr Purohit in his apology wrote that “I considered (your) question to be a good one. Therefore, as an act of appreciation for the question that you had posted, I gave a pat on your cheek considering you to be like my granddaughter.Done with affection and to express appreciation for your performance as a journalist, since I was also a member of that profession for about 40 years.”
Earlier the journalist took it to Twitter to share the incident and said that after she asked the governor a question at the fag end of his press conference, “he decided to patronizingly – and without consent – pat me on the cheek as a reply.”
She termed it as unprofessional behaviour and completely uncalled for Mr Purohit to touch a stranger without consent.
After the governor’ss apology, Ms Subramanian said she accepted his apology, “even though I am not convinced about your contention that you did it to appreciate a question I asked.” Not quite buying into the “grandfatherly pat” claim.
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