Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been the unwitting victim of a digital prank in which his name was prefixed by another name, following his remark on eating beef.
Some days ago, a Wikipedia user edited the entry on Siddaramaiah and changed his name to “Samuel Siddaramaiah” from S Siddaramaiah. The chief minister’s name is actually K Siddaramaiah, but his initial is rarely referred to by the media, unlike some other political leaders whose initials are mentioned.
A user called Girish031192 changed Siddaramaiah’s surname to S Siddaramaiah through mobile on October 30, a day after Siddaramaiah’s comment on eating beef.
The next day, another user who goes by the name of 66.203.207.68, changed Siddaramaiah’s name to Samuel Siddaramaiah.
This change comes a day after Siddaramaiah told journalists, “I have not eaten go-maamsa (cow-meat) until today, (but) who are you to ask me whether I have or not?
The name remained unchanged until November 3, after which it was changed back to S Siddaramaiah.
Kannada Prabha reported that the government is conducting a search for the person who made these changes.
In July this year, some miscreants had made some controversial changes to Jawaharlal Nehru’s Wikipedia page too.
Nehru’s profession was changed from “Barrister” to “Divider of India”. However, Wikipedia’s empanelled editors removed it as soon as it was discovered.
Another modification pertained to Nehru’s grandfather: “Gangadhar was born as a Muslim by the name of Ghiasuddin Ghazi but changed his name to a Hindu-- Ganga Dhar-- to escape from British clutches”.