Journalist accepts Tamil Nadu Governor's apology for pat on cheek: Updates

Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit kicked up a huge row when he patted a journalist on her cheek, apparently to diplomatically avoid replying to a question

Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Wednesday apologised to a woman reporter whose cheek he publicly patted on Tuesday, a gesture that provoked outrage by her and the journalist fraternity and protests by opposition parties.

In a letter to Lakshmi Subramanian, the 78-year-old under-fire governor said she was like her "granddaughter" and that his gesture stemmed from "affection" and "appreciation" of her performance as a journalist.

Subramanian, who works for an English news magazine, responded to the governor's letter with an e-mail where she accepted his apology but said that she was not convinced about Purohit's contention that he did it to