Indianness & an Honorary Degree

He's a Grandmaster, champion of chess,

You thought, we should honor him, yes?
But the government said, "Banish
The thought, he is Spanish -
So no honors for him". What a mess!

Now the Minister's saying, "Throughout,
Of his Indianness, we had no doubt.
But some procedural errors,
By my dumb office bearers,
Caused this mishap." - Go figure that out!

26th August, 2010: Claiming that he is Spanish, bureaucrats in the HRD ministry refused to clear a request from a premier university to confer an honorary degree on the Viswanathan Anand during the International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad. Seeing the public outcry in response to this goof up by his department as well as censure by members of parliament, HRD minister Kapil Sibal later apologized to the Grandmaster. Get the story here.