SIR: Bharat Ratna awardee CNR Rao sent notice for spelling mismatch

Scientist CNR Rao, a Bharat Ratna awardee, has been asked by the Election Commission to establish his identity as part of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Karnataka, The Hindu reported on Wednesday.

Rao was sent a notice following a mismatch in the spelling of his name during the exercise.

The 92-year-old was informed that while the older voter list mentioned his name as “Prof CNR Rao”, the new roll recorded it as “Proff CNR Rao”, with an extra “f” in the professional title. This is categorised as a “self-mismatch”.

This is a category of discrepancy flagged by the Election Commission when the details filled out by a voter in their enumeration form do not match those present in the 2002 electoral roll. “Logical discrepancies” can also arise if there is a mismatch in the names of a voter’s parents, a low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being more than six.

Rao has been asked to appear before the authorities, The Hindu reported, adding that his acquaintances were not aware of the notice until the newspaper contacted them.

The scientist was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, in 2014 for his contributions to solid-state and materials chemistry.

The Congress on Wednesday asked that if a Bharat Ratna...

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