Man can achieve any feat if he sets his mind to it. Rajveer Upadhyay from Ahmedabad asked the government to change his name to ‘ RV155677820’. This is an amalgamation of his name and his enrollment number on his school leaving certificate.
In 2017, he requested the state authorities to recognize him as an atheist and allow him to change his name. But it was soon rejected.
I am a rationalist and secular person and this is a secular country. The law of the country should give me the right to be known as an atheist. If I write my name and surname, people will know my religion and caste but I do not want my identity to be shrunk to the narrow confines of religion and caste
Even though his plea to change his name was rejected, he remained undeterred. As per sources, this year he was able to add ‘secular’ colour to his daughter’s school-leaving certificate.
The father made sure his daughter, Akanksha’s certificate does not mention caste, religion, sect or race, making it perhaps the first certificate of its kind.
Rajveer had to run pillar to post for three months for this to happen. It was only after a lot of persuasion that he was able to leave religion and caste column empty in his daughter’s school leaving certificate.
In his plea to the Ahmedabad district collector and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, he mentioned the Tamil Nadu lawyer, Sneha, who was able to convince authorities to remove all religious tags from her official documents.
I managed to get the certificate by making innumerable representations to the Ahmedabad district collector and chief minister Vijay Rupani. After considering the representations, the school authorities heeded my request.
After a lot of hard work and perseverance, Rajveer achieved that one thing that he truly believes in.
