The journalist, Lakshmi Subramanian, had conveyed her anger at the Governor's gesture
Highlights
- Tamil Nadu Governor's cheek-patting gesture found offensive by many
- "It was an act of appreciation", was the Governor's justification
- "Didn't want his appreciation...I wanted an answer", the journalist said
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit's apology for a cheek-patting gesture that many found offensive has been accepted by a woman journalist, but with a disclaimer.
Journalist Lakshmi Subramanian had written to Mr Purohit conveying her anger at his gesture after
she asked a question during his press conference on Tuesday evening.
In response, the
78-year-old governor offered his apology, but with a bizarre justification - that too, not long after distancing himself from a sex-for-degrees scandal at a college.
"I considered (your) question to be a good one. Therefore, as an act of appreciation for the question that you had posed, I gave a pat on your cheek considering you to be like my granddaughter," he wrote. Mr Purohit added that it was "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."
Not quite buying into the "grandfatherly pat" claim, 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."
Speaking to NDTV, she said: "I didn't want his appreciation...I wanted an answer. He is the constitutional head of state and I am a journalist. There can be no other relationship."
Yesterday, the journalist went on Twitter to share her encounter and said that after she asked the governor a question at the fag end of his press conference, "he decided to patronisingly - and without consent - pat me on the cheek as a reply."
She said it was unprofessional behavior and completely uncalled for, for Mr Purohit to touch a stranger without consent.
Hours later, she even rubbished his explanation with a scathing tweet.
The governor was roundly condemned for conduct unbecoming of a constitutional post.
He had called the 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.