New Delhi: The controversy over translations of Hindi names in Uttar Pradesh’s Legislative Council electoral rolls has now thrown up another bizarre question: Is the software in use by the UP CEO office communal?
When AAP leaders questioned why the software only translated, instead of transliterating, the name ‘Ram hit Yadav’ to ‘Ram ne Yadav ko Mara’, the office of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) clarified late Sunday night that another voter’s father’s name was changed to ‘Ram ne Sharma ko Mara’.
“Computers/software are not casteist. It is acceptable that we made a mistake, but fortunately, even during the mistake, there was no discrimination based on caste,” the CEO office further wrote. “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,” the post added.
The controversy began late last week, when the X account of the UP CEO admitted that while the facility for online registration was provided to add names to the voter list for Legislative Council Elections in Uttar Pradesh for the first time, there were 158 entries out of over 14.81 lakh entries where the names of voters or their relatives appeared strange.
It said that the names typed in English by the software were supposed to be transliterated into Hindi, but due to some error, they were translated instead.
For instance, it said that if a voter’s name was Ramhit Yadav, and by mistake, the name ‘Ram hit Yadav’ was typed, then the software translated it as ‘Ram ne Yadav ko maara’.
It said that while there was a provision to edit and correct such errors that arose, but where people were not careful, such mistakes remained. “There is always a possibility of mistakes when doing any task for the first time,” it clarified.
Wherever concerned, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), who was the Division Commissioner and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO), who was the District Magistrate, were both asked for an explanation as well.
On Sunday, AAP leader Sanjay Singh shared a video in which AAP UP Purvanchal Prant Adhyaksh Rajesh Yadav is seen asking why Ram ultimately killed a “Yadav” and not a Pathak, Mishra, Singh, Rai, Bisht, Tiwari or Sharma.
“Is Ram only hitting ‘Yadav’? Is your computer deeply casteist as well? Or are you running the agenda of a particular party while sitting in the Election Commission?” he asked in the video.
Sharing the AAP functionary’s video, Singh highlighted his “valid question”.
In response, CEO UP’s account highlighted another such “bizarre name” in the UP Legislative Council elections voter list: “Ram ne Sharma ko mara”.
Quoting the response, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate then jumped in and asked who was running the X handle of CEO UP. “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 remarked.
In response, the CEO office said that the “Election Commission of India has issued instructions to limit statements to facts only, using restrained language in every case, without unnecessary comments.”
‘Appropriate action being taken’
Election Commission of India (ECI) officials confirmed to ThePrint that the software in question is an in-house software built for the purpose of the MLC polls scheduled for 23 October.
Two days before the polls, the CEO office had also issued a press statement asserting that “no voter shall be deprived of their voting rights on the basis of partial clerical or printing errors in the voter’s details in the voter list”.
It said that if any voter arrives at a polling station to exercise their voting rights and the Presiding Officer or Polling Officer notices clerical or printing inaccuracies in the voter’s details in the voter list, in such a situation, the voter’s identity shall be verified.
If the Polling Officer was satisfied, based on the valid documents presented by the voter or other details recorded in the voter list, that the person is indeed the voter whose name is registered in the voter list, then such clerical or printing errors shall be overlooked, and permission shall be granted to exercise voting rights.
The CEO office reiterated Monday morning that the reasons for such erroneous names appearing in the voter lists are being “looked into and appropriate action is being taken to prevent any reoccurrence”.
It also said that “some forged voter slips” are viral and the persons responsible for such forgery will be dealt with as per the law. “It is requested that before quoting/displaying/publishing as a fact, anything shared by someone on social media regarding the voter list , it may be proper to verify it from the concerned officials. Our officials would promptly respond to any factual query,” it added.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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