Lucknow, Oct 27: Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa on Tuesday apologised for a sarcastic reply posted by his office’s X account to AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, saying the tone and tenor of the communication were not in line with what is expected of the official handle.
Rinwa’s response came a day after the UP CEO’s handle replied to Singh, who had questioned Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over an incorrect entry in the voter slip where “Ramhit Yadav” became “Ram ne Yadav ko Maara”.
Singh had said on X in Hindi, “Gyanesh Kumar ji, why did Ram hit only a Yadav? Why did Ram not hit any Singh, Pathak, Asthana, Sharma, Rai or Bisht? Is your computer casteist? Are you running the agenda of any political party?”
In response, the UP CEO’s handle said, “A strange name, ‘Ram ne Sharma ko Maara’, is also present in the voter list of the recent legislative council elections. Computers/software are not casteist.”
“We accept that an error was made, but fortunately, even while making the error, no caste discrimination took place. Thank God that Ram did not hit a minority. Otherwise, besides being accused of casteism, we would have also faced allegations of communalism,” it added.
The UP CEO said he has acknowledged the outrage over the social media post and assured to keep the line of communication “decorous and formal”.
“The tone and tenor and the acerbic nature of the comments in the quoted post of this handle is not in line with the nature of communication expected from this official handle. The genuine outrage generated by the comments in the post has been well noted. We offer our sincere apologies to the persons shocked and offended by it. Our communication henceforth will be decorous and formal,” Rinwa posted from his @ceoup handle.
The CEO’s office also shared a voter slip from the recently-held graduate constituency legislative council elections. The slip listed the voter’s name as Ravi Sharma, while his father’s name appeared as “Ram ne Sharma ko Maara”.
Rinwa said that some “bizarre-looking names” appeared in the voter list during the recently held legislative council elections.
“The reasons behind such mistakes are being looked into, and appropriate action is being taken to prevent recurrence,” the CEO said.
He said “some forged voter slips” had gone viral on social media and were being displayed or circulated by several established media outlets and prominent individuals.
“The person responsible for the forgery will be dealt with as per law,” Rinwa added.
The CEO also urged people to verify information related to voter lists circulating on social media with concerned officials before quoting, displaying or publishing it as fact.
“Our officials would promptly respond to any factual query,” he said.
Last week, Rinwa had explained that in some cases, instead of transliterating names, software translated the words, resulting in incorrect entries.
For instance, if “Ramhit Yadav” was mistakenly typed as “Ram Hit Yadav”, the software translated it into Hindi as “Ram ne Yadav ko Maara” (Ram hit Yadav).
He said the errors could have been corrected using the editing feature, but some remained in the final list. (PTI)
