Uproar over TN governor’s pat on woman journalist’s cheek

TIL Desk/National/Chennai/ Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit walked straight into another controversy when after addressing a press conference at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai he responded to a woman’s journalist question by patting her cheek.

The press conference had just concluded when the journalist Lakshmi Subramanian, who works with the Week, asked the governor a question at the venue of the crowded press conference, when it had almost ended.  The upset journalist tweeted this open letter about what happened.

“Governor Banwarilal Purohit, I am angered and agitated. You didn’t answer my questions, but you decided to patronisingly, and without my consent, pat on my cheek as a reply. To you, it might be a mark of appreciation, and a “grandfatherly” gesture, as you replied to several questions during the hour-long press conference on sexual allegations against you. But to me, it was an uninvited gesture as I wanted only answers and not a pat on my cheek.

It was a day of news reports on the professor Nirmala Devi issue. As a journalist, I too wrote on the politics and the controversies surrounding the case. And, when there was a press communique from the governor’s office saying he will meet the press at 6 pm, I too set out with our Manorama TV crew to pose a few questions to Banwarilal Purohit on the issue.

I was sitting right on the first row throughout the press conference. I had three to four questions to him over allegations of sexual misconduct, and the reports over a home ministry enquiry against Banwarilal Purohit. To these, he replied with much anger, dubbing them, “nonsense and baseless allegation.”