UP CEO apologizes for 'Thank god...Ram didn't kill minority' post
What's the story
The office of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Election Officer (CEO) has apologized for a controversial post on minorities that sparked outrage. The post, meant to address an error in the voter list of recent Uttar Pradesh legislative council elections, used a sarcastic tone and language that many found offensive. The controversy started when Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh highlighted a glaring mistake in the voter list where "Ramhit Yadav" was incorrectly entered as "Ram ne Yadav ko Maara."
Political scrutiny
'Are you pushing a political agenda?'
Singh questioned Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar if he was pushing a political agenda with such errors.
Singh asked, "Gyanesh Kumar, 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?"
The UP CEO's official handle responded sarcastically to Singh's questions and defended the error by saying computers/software are not casteist.
Apology issued
'Thank God, Ram didn't kill a minority member'
The office of Uttar Pradesh CEO cited another instance of a similar error in the voter list to argue that while an error happened, no caste discrimination took place.
"A bizarre name, 'Ram ne Sharma ko maara' (Ram killed Sharma), has appeared in the voter list for the recent Legislative Council elections. Computers/software are not casteist. We admit that a mistake was made, but fortunately for us, even when the mistake occurred, caste discrimination was not involved," the CEO tweeted.
Future commitment
We sincerely apologize: UP poll body
In another post, the official handle made another controversial remark, saying, "Thank God, Ram did not kill a member of a minority community. Otherwise, we would have been accused of being communal as well as casteist."
This only added to the outrage and led to Singh accusing the UP CEO of acting like an "agent of the BJP."
On Tuesday, amid rising controversy, the poll body apologized for the "tone" and "language" of the comment
Statement
CEO's statement
"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," the CEO posted.