Is Vishwanathan Anand an Indian?

Is world chess champion Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand an Indian citizen? At least that's what everyone, including Anand himself, knows.

And that's what his passport says.

But the Indian bureaucracy has doubts.

Since Anand lives in Spain, the bureaucracy thinks Anand is a foreigner and hence needs a clearance from India's foreign ministry before an Indian university confers a doctorate on him.

The human resource development ministry of India raised questions about his citizenship just when the clearance -- thought to be a mere formality -- was needed before University of Hyderabad could confer an honourary doctorate on the world champion who has done India proud with his achievements over the years, The Telegraph reported.

The university, which never confers such an honour on politicians, had earlier sought the mandatory citizenship clearance to honour the champion during the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM).

Anand, whose was asked to be present on Monday for the convocation to award him the doctorate, was also scheduled to play simultaneously against 40 mathematicians on Tuesday.

However, with the university shackled by the ministry's inaction saw Anand spending the time chatting with mathematicians who have gathered from around the world.

The newspaper quoted Rajat Tandon, head of the university's mathematics department, as saying: “This is terribly embarrassing for us — we had requested Anand to arrive in Hyderabad a day in advance of his ICM engagement so we could have the convocation today (Monday).”

American mathematician David Mumford was also to have been honoured with a doctorate at the convocation which has since been stalled due to the ministry's stand on Anand's citizenship.
 
Upon contacting, Anand's wife Aruna sent the university a copy of his passport. “I do not understand from where the confusion on Anand’s citizenship comes from. Anand is and has always been a citizen of India,” Aruna wrote in her email to the ICM organisers.

Repeated attempts by organisers of the quadrennial event did not yielded any results as the ministry refused to budge.

The newspaper quoted university sources as saying relevant papers were sent to the ministry by mid-July.

Being a central university, all doctorates need the clearance of the Indian President who is its Visitor.

Madabusi Raghunathan, a senior mathematician at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, and chairman of the ICM executive organising committee suggested there was something "mischievous" about the whole thing.

The ministry did not comment.

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