A woman PhD scholar, Jean Joseph, Wednesday refused to receive her degree from the Tamil Nadu Governor at the 32nd convocation of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli, stating that R N Ravi is “against Tamil Nadu and Tamils”.
In a video, which has now gone viral, Joseph is seen walking past the Governor even as he smilingly gestures to her to stand next to him to receive the degree. Joseph walks past him and gets her degree from the Vice Chancellor of the varsity, M Chandrasekar.
Speaking to The Indian Express, the 38-year-old said: “I did not want to get my degree from a person who does not respect either Tamil Nadu or Tamil culture. The Governor does not respect Tamil people, and hence I decided not to get my degree from him.”
Joseph is also the spouse of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader M Rajan. “But my decision not to accept the degree from the Governor came from my own conviction. My husband’s politics had nothing to do with it,” she said.
Joseph said that she had been contemplating this for the past two days. “I received the convocation invitation two days ago, and since then, I have been thinking about it. I also wondered whether my action could cause trouble for other candidates at the convocation,” she said. “I decided to go for it at the last moment because I just couldn’t get myself to accept the degree from him.”
“I know several young people who want to be doctors and want an exemption from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). The governor sat on that Bill for long, and even now Tamil students are not exempted from NEET,” she said.
Ravi had refused to give his assent to several Bills passed by the state’s Legislative Assembly. The Supreme Court had, in April, declared as illegal and erroneous his actions in reserving 10 Bills for consideration of the President in November 2024, after they had already been reconsidered by the state Assembly. The Bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan ruled that any subsequent steps taken by the President, too, do not survive.
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“I think my decision would set an example for others to stand up to powerful people when they are wrong,” said Joseph, whose PhD is in Human Resources. She also has an MBA and a B.Com degree.
