Southern Indian state governor apologises to female journalist for patting her cheek
Xinhua,April 18, 2018 Adjust font size:
NEW DELHI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Banwarilal Purohit, the governor of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, on Wednesday apologised to a woman journalist who took offence to his patting her cheek the day before.
The "pat-on-cheek" incident happened on Tuesday at the state's capital city Chennai after the governor had just finished addressing a press conference over a viral audio-tape in which a lady assistant professor is heard luring female students for offering sexual favours to "higher-ups".
After the press conference had just ended, the woman journalist identified as Lakshmi Subramanian, asked a question to Purohit. Instead of replying, he patted her cheek and walked away smilingly.
The video showing the governor patting the woman journalist's cheek soon went viral. It snowballed into a major controversy after Lakshmi took an exception and tweeted condemning the governor's act. And, soon she got the media's attention. She also wrote an email to the governor condemning his act.
In response to her email, the governor said, "I do understand from your mail that you feel hurt about the incident. I wish to express my regret and my apologies to assuage your sentiments that have been hurt." Enditem