CHENNAI: Higher Education Minister Govi Chezhiaan boycotted the Tamil Nadu Open University's convocation, which is seen as fall out of the recent war of words between the State government and Raj Bhavan over the Tamil anthem issue as Governor RN Ravi awarded degrees at the function.

The invitation with regard to the convocation of the Tamil Nadu Open University mentioned the participation of Govi Chezhiaan, but the minister didn’t turn up even though he shared the dais with the gubernatorial head in a previous convocation of Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University.

This boycott is in odd with the statement made by the Higher Education Minister when he took over that the difference of opinion and the issues between the State government and the Raj Bhavan office will be sorted out very soon for the sake of higher education. He also added that Chief Minister M K Stalin also advised him to avoid issues by approaching the right path with the governor.

As many as 6,940 students from both undergraduate and postgraduate courses received degree certificates at the event.