The Collector, Police Commissioner, Corporation Commissioner, ruling partymen, a few academics and a battery of journalists will any day make an unusual mix of audience in a viva-voce.
They had all assembled at the PSG College of Arts and Science on Monday as the researcher defending his doctoral thesis was Coimbatore Mayor P. Rajkumar.
His topic was ‘The Emergence of J. Jayalalithaa as mass political leader: A study’.
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“The emergence of Ms. Jayalalithaa was a unique phenomenon in contemporary Indian politics,” Mr. Rajkumar said in the presence of his guide C. Pichandy and external examiner Prof V. Natarajan, Head, Department of Journalism and Communication, Periyar University.
The Mayor said he had interviewed more than 900 people from different sections of the society in various parts of Tamil Nadu but took the answers of 510 persons for his thesis.
It was not a profile of Ms. Jayalalithaa but critical evaluation of her personality using the California Psychological Inventory for the purpose, he said adding that he had also relied upon personality studies, studies on women in politics, studies on political movement and works on Ms. Jayalalithaa.
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He then took questions from the audience on sampling size, use of the word, ‘emergence’ in the title, and on other aspects of his thesis.
Professor of Metallurgical Engineering V. Balusamy wanted to know whether a critical evaluation of Ms. Jayalalithaa was made as there appeared to be only praises showered on her.
He also asked whether Mr. Rajkumar compared leaders who were similar to Ms. Jayalalitha in the Californian Personality Index rankings and sought his answer to what would be the contribution of the thesis to the research works.
At the end of the viva-voce examination, external examiner Mr. Natarajan said that he may be recommended for doctorate of philosophy for successfully defending the topic.
Also present were L. Gopalakrishnan, Managing Trustee, PSG Group of Institutions, Vanitha Mohan of Siruthuli and a few other industrialists.