DH Popcorn | Booth bungle: Deliberate or 'notional' blunder?

Why do so many people have 0 as their house number? Because, the CEC said, India is full of homeless people

Election Commission Of India logo. 

Credit: iStock Photo

In response to Rahul Gandhi accusing the BJP of ‘vote chori’, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar made an impassioned speech about the nobility of the electoral exercise.

Why do so many people have 0 as their house number? Because, he said, India is full of homeless people, and the Election Commission makes sure they exercise their democratic right. Hence No 0. It is what he called a ‘notional’ number.

Turns out so many things are notional, no? Like the notional language we are pushed to learn… As for footage from the voting booths, he won’t make it public because who wants to expose mothers and sisters to the media glare? Yeah. But it’s perfectly okay for our tax authorities to check their personal emails.