Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa on Tuesday apologised for a sharp reply posted by his office’s social media handle to an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lawmaker, who pointed out a bizarre name in a voter list. The CEO said that the tone and tenor of the communication were not in line with what is expected of the official handle.
A person familiar with the matter said the CEO was in-charge of the handle, and no internal changes have been made at his office.
In a post on X, Rinwa said the genuine outrage generated by the comments in the post has been duly noted. “We sincerely apologise to those who are surprised and upset by this. From now on, our communication will be polite and formal,” he said.
On Monday, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh drew the UP CEO’s attention to an issue raised by party leader Rajesh Yadav concerning the bizarre name “Ram ne Yadav ko maara” (Ram killed Yadav) in the voter list for the legislative council election for the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates’ constituency.
“Why did Ram ultimately killed a ‘Yadav’ specifically? Why didn’t Ram kill a Singh, Pathak, Asthana, Sharma, Rai, or Bisht? Is your computer deeply casteist? Are you pushing some party’s agenda? @rajeshyadavaap’s question was valid,” Singh said in a post on X.
In response, Rinwa said that the voter list for the recent Legislative Council elections contained another similarly bizarre name: “Ram ne Sharma ko mara” (Ram killed Sharma).
“Computers/software are not casteist. …we made a mistake, but fortunately, even during the mistake, there was no discrimination based on caste. We must also thank God that Ram did not kill any minority. Otherwise, in addition to being casteist, there would also be an accusation of being communal,” he said.
Congress working committee (CWC) member and party’s national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate asked who was running the Uttar Pradesh CEO’s social media account.
“Anyway, you folks have no special credibility left to save. The little bit of confusion that exists - this handle is clearing it up all by itself!” she said.