HRD minister Kapil Sibal said he personally called up Anand to say “sorry”, while clarifying that the goof-up happened due to procedural delays.
Is Viswanathan Anand Indian? You may fanatically believe so, but it has taken the Union government 10 months to figure out the nationality of the world chess champion.
The issue hit the headlines when it emerged that the government had till late on Sunday sat over a file concerning the conferring of an honorary doctorate on Anand by the University of Hyderabad.
University officials said the process of getting Anand’s name approved began in October 2009. Repeated queries on his nationality from the foreign and human resource development ministries followed. The queries were due to his domicile in Spain, where Anand lives because of convenient tournament schedules, though he holds an Indian passport.
Anand, along with Harvard mathematician David Mumford, was to be given the honour on Monday. On hearing that there was a likelihood of major embarrassment, Mumford, who arrived in Hyderabad on Sunday, left the same day and is at present in Chennai. Anand, who too arrived in the city on Sunday to take part in simultaneous (simul) chess against 40 individuals, stayed on.
The match, held on Tuesday, was organised as part of the ongoing International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), a quadrennial event which is being held in India for the first time.
Sources said though the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry intervened and the minister, Kapil Sibal, apologised to Anand personally for the goof-up, the champion was in no mood to accept the doctorate.
“We don’t know what happened. We submitted all documents sought by various ministries. We still feel that the award is getting delayed, but not being denied,” Prof Rajat Tandon, head of the university’s mathematics department and secretary of the ICM’s executive organising committee, told DNA.
A statement from the ICM said the embarrassment was the result of “insensitive bureaucratic obstruction”.
“Anand holds an Indian passport issued in Madras. We are still not able to understand why the ministries should have raised the doubt, that too after conferring on him the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1992,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Anand avoided the media glare completely. A person who spoke to him said the champion is put off with the developments and is in no mood to accept the doctorate at this point.
However, the university has expressed its willingness to organise a special function at Anand’s convenience to give him the honour.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal said he personally called up Anand to say “sorry”, while clarifying that the goof-up happened due to procedural delays.
Sibal said the honorary doctorate will now be conferred on him at any time that suits him and that from the government’s side, there is no question over his nationality.
With inputs from Vineeta Pandey in New Delhi
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