The Lokayukta and the Delhi assembly have been in loggerheads over notices served to the AAP MLAs over the declaration of their assets. On Monday, almost 50 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs in Delhi, refused to furnish details of their assets and liabilities as directed by Delhi Lokayukta Reva Khetarpal. The MLAs have filed affidavits stating that demanding such declarations are not within the Lokayukta’s jurisdiction as there is no such law or legal provisions that prescribe the same.
While the Delhi social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam and transport minister Kailash Gahlot are amongst those who have replied to the notice, AAP supremo and Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal and the Deputy CM, Manish Sisodia, who have also been served the notice by the Lokayukta’s office, are yet to respond.
However, three MLAs including BJP’s Vijender Gupta and Manjinder Singh Sirsa and rebel AAP legislator Kapil Mishra furnished details of assets and liabilities to the Lokayukta.
The remaining MLAs have been given time till February 27 to submit their replies.
While the AAP spokesperson, Saurabh Bhardwaj asserted that “there is no law that MLAs need to file details of their assets and liabilities to the Lokayukta”, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel had last week written to Justice (retd) Lokayukta Reva Khetrapal, requesting her to recall the notices served to the AAP MLAs, saying the allegations are “baseless and politically motivated”.
He today, urged her to move the court against BJP member Vivek Garg, who has filed a complaint with the authorities over the alleged non-declaration of assets and liabilities in the House by AAP MLAs.
Based on a complaint by an advocate and RTI activist Vivek Garg, Lokyukta Reva Khetrapal had earlier this month issued notices to Delhi MLAs seeking replies regarding the submission of details of their assets and liabilities for the last three financial years.
Garg had alleged that “AAP MLAs had not filed details of their assets from 2015 to 2018 and were concealing them in a conspiracy to obtain wrongful gains”.
The AAP MLAs in their replies, however, stated that the complaint filed by advocate Vivek Garg, which prompted the notice “is devoid of any merit and the same be dismissed with exemplary cost”. They furthered that under Section 9(2) of the Lokayukta Act, 1995, the petitioner should be penalised and sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment for false and baseless complaints.
Earlier this month the Lokayukta’s request to be exempted from the installation of GPS on official cars had also been turned down by the Delhi Government.
You can feel that an era is coming to an end. The big names of the Vajpayee era are leaving us, one by one. Dr Kalam is no more. Atalji is no more. Madan Lal Khurana is no more. And now George Fernandes passes away.
Now, I am no socialist, but yes I am capable of looking beyond that to appreciate a man with sincerely held beliefs. And a working moral compass.
Late George Fernandes during the Emergency
George Fernandes raising his shackled hand at the time of the Emergency. A show of defiance against a real dictator. At a time when our compromised liberal media is falling over itself to celebrate someone because she “looks like Indira”, this picture should give pause to the masses. A moment to reflect what Indira Gandhi really stood for.
I wasn’t born at the time the Emergency happened. For kids of my generation, this was the image of George Fernandes that got stuck in our heads.
PM Atal Bihar Vajpayee, George Fernandes and Dr Kalam after Pokhran test
I was a schoolboy at the time. I did not understand very much. But perhaps it was this simplicity that gave me clarity. I had not studied intersectional woke feminist theory at JNU, but I did understand the rules of the playground. Which was that the weak would get beaten. And studying the history of India in the school curriculum, even the sanitized version they gave us, could not hide the fact that our side had been beaten over and over again.
Subdued. Oppressed. Plundered. For one thousand years. Colonized and then broken apart.
It just made so much sense to get these nuclear weapons. At the time I was not even sure what ‘nuclear’ meant, but I did understand it was a kind of “super weapon”, that it would make India invincible for all of history to come. And that all other nations of the world were really angry and jealous that we had successfully built this ultimate weapon.
So these three men in this picture: Atalji, Dr Kalam and George Fernandes, felt like heroes. More like superheroes who were defending us against the world. An Indian version of the Justice League. All three men have passed away. But the strong nation they built endures.
The Vajpayee era was the transition, the period that brought India from darkness to the light. India was still coming to terms with the ashes of Nehruvian socialism. India was still coming to terms with the reforms of 1991, rubbing its eyes and trying to understand the bold new world. We had been asleep for forty years. The world had passed us by.
We did not know if the new world even had a place for us. Whether we would survive.
It was during the Vajpayee era that India realized we could win. That the bold new world could be ours. Words like “economic growth” and GDP entered the Indian political lexicon. Today we see BJP and Congress sparring over who has delivered better GDP growth. This would have been unthinkable before the Vajpayee years. At the time, GDP growth was almost a dirty word. Politicians spoke in whispers about growing the GDP, worried that it could get them tagged as “anti-poor”! This was the upside down, absurd Nehruvian superstition under which the Indian masses toiled.
Vajpayee took the bull by the horns. In 2004, he paid the price for a nation that still, by and large, did not trust economic growth. But he transformed the nation forever.
Ultimately, individuals don’t matter. Only the nation does.
There is another unforgettable image of George Fernandes that comes to mind. It is of an enraged George Fernandes making sure that Sonia Gandhi’s photograph was pulled down from the Constitution Club where it had been placed beside Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and Dr Rajendra Prasad.
“Mujhe lagta hai kisi ghulam ke aulaad ne ye kaam kiya hai (I think someone with a slave mentality must have done this)” he said of the person who had placed the photograph there, before adding, “Desh kya in logon ne khaareed liya aake .. Nehru khandaan (Have these Nehru dynasts bought the country?)”
Spoken with the same defiant spirit with which he raised his shackled hand in protest against Indira Gandhi all those years ago. With the clear conscience of a man who knows that his moral compass cannot be hijacked by hypocrisy.
George Fernandes was slandered endlessly by slimy media organizations and sleazy sting operations and during the coffin scam. But his truth endured.
George Fernandes has now passed into history. Om Shanti.
But the resurgent India that took shape during the Vajpayee years will keep going from strength to strength. Even if the heroes of that era are no more. Observe that the period from 1991 to 2004 was the period when the Nehru Dynasty was least relevant in Indian politics. Observe that this is the period when India renewed its march towards greatness.
If there is one regret that I feel, it is that the lion of India’s reforms did not get the farewell he deserved. They say that the Government of India could not even provide flowers and carpets when P V Narasimha Rao passed away in December 2004. His body was shunted to Hyderabad, denied a funeral in Delhi. Which is perhaps okay, because just Delhi isn’t India. We the people. We are India. And the heroes of the 1991-2004 era, who revived our great nation, will be fondly remembered forever. Jai Hind.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, interacting at the “Pariksha Pe Charcha” with nearly 2,000 students from high school to college managed to break the audience into laughter after a mother asked him a question regarding online gaming.
During the interaction, a concerned mother complained to the Prime Minister that her son was avoiding studies and addicted to online games. To her question, PM Modi replied: “PUBG-wala hai kya? (is he a PUBG gamer?)” which resulted in a loud burst of laughter from the audience present.
#WATCH:PM replies when a mother asks what must she do as her son, a Class-IX student is distracted by online games “Ye PUBG wala hai kya? Ye samasya bhi hai, samadhaan bhi hai, hum chahe hamare bachhe tech se door chale jayen, fr toh vo ek prakar se piche jana shuru ho jaenge” pic.twitter.com/uDjqVd4RZa
However, the Prime Minister on a serious note said the issue is both a problem and a solution while adding that it was not good to dissuade children from technology. “If we want our kids to turn away from technology, then they will fall behind,” said PM Modi.
“Explore ways in which you encourage your children towards accepting and understanding technology. But remember, technology should be used to expand our horizons, not to let it shrink us in our life. It should not be allowed to narrow us down, as that would be very harmful to us,” advised PM Modi.
“Like everything else, technology too comes with its positives and negatives. As parents, we must guide our children to get the most from technology. Encourage their inquisitiveness on learning about various apps, like how to build something, or cook something,” said Prime Minister while interacting with students at Talkatora stadium in New Delhi.
PM Modi said that technology should lead to the expansion of the mind and as a means to innovate and urged the parents to try and make efforts so that children would hopefully move from “PlayStation to the playground”.
It is rather interesting to know that Prime Minister Modi despite his hectic work schedule managed to be aware of such micro issues like online gaming PUBG, which has taken the Internet by storm. PUBG, which is an online multiplayer game has become a huge online trend among the millennials rising concerns among parents for its addictive nature.
Reportedly, PUBG Mobile has been banned in schools recently in the state of Gujarat. The game was launched in December 2017 and has since acquired a massive fan base in India and worldwide.
Congress has been fighting internal rift in most states for quite some time. From Karnataka, where their alliance is barely hanging on by a thread, to an internal rift in Madhya Pradesh after they won the election, Congress has had a tough time keeping its own house in order. Now, a video has emerged where two groups of Congress workers are seen bashing each other up, reportedly, over Lok Sabha Election tickets.
#WATCH Two groups of Congress workers clash during the party’s district meeting in Jalore, Rajasthan (28.1.19) pic.twitter.com/7mMLbNb32K
The fight between the two Congress factions reportedly broke out in the Jalore area of Rajasthan. In front of the AICC secretary, in a meeting organised for the Lok Sabha election, the two groups were seen getting into a fist fight. Reportedly, the fight broke out while Congress leader Vivek Bansal was taking ‘feedback’ from the workers about the Lok Sabha elections.
The fight broke out between the Om Singh Chandrai and Samarjeet Singh.
While Rajasthan Congress was beating each other up, Ashok Gehlot, the Congress Chief Minister of Rajasthan talked tall and claimed that Congress would defeat Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and that the party’s preparation to contest the maker-or-break elections were on track. He spoke about the ficticious Rafale scam, demonetisation, GST etc. He also said that 2019 is a fight for “ideology”.
This is not the first time that Congress factions have gotten into physical fights over ticktet distribution. Recently, two Congress MLAs from Karnataka got into a fight at Eagleton resort where they were staying where one ended up with head injuries that landed him in the hospital. Before the Rajasthan Assembly Elections, Congress workers had surrounded Sachin Pilot’s car and had protested violently against the ticket distribution as well.
Fed up with rampant Christian conversions in and around the village, the residents of Navsari district’s Gandeva village in Gujarat have decided to ban on entry of outsider Christians to their village as a measure to prevent them from converting local tribal Hindus, reported Indian Express.
According to the reports, the local tribals have put up banners and boards declaring a “ban on entry of outsider Christians” in the area. The recent activities from Christian missionaries to convert local Hindu tribals to Christianity have been cited to be the reason behind such decision by the villagers.
“Christi dharm parnara tamam bhai-behano Gandeva Haripura faliya ma baharno koipan vyakti e faliya ma pravesh karvo nahi (All the outsider brothers-sisters of the Christian religion, should not enter into Haripura street),” reads a banner written in Gujarati which has been put up at the entrance of the village.
The report suggests that Gandeva village has a population of 7,500 with the majority of them belonging to Halpati community, a Scheduled Tribe, while others are Bakshipanch.
Jayanti Mistry, Deputy sarpanch of the village said that the local villagers are now fed up with the spread of Christianity in the village. She added that there are already 900 Christians in the village. Expressing concern, she said 12 tribal families out of 70 present in the village have already converted to Christianity. “On every Sunday morning, Christian priests from different neighbouring districts come and preach Christianity, and lures innocent tribals to get converted into Christianity,” said Mistry.
The village sarpanch, Satish Katariya said that the conversion began around eight years ago when Christians built their first prayer hall. Katariya went on to say that within five years Christians built their second prayer hall and then the third prayer hall was built on Hathwada street. Later fourth prayer hall was built around one and a half year ago on Kharel street, said Katariaya.
“Local Hindu tribals do not want that such prayer hall to be built on Haripura street. So, they may have hanged such banners. Those who convert to Christianity are farm labourers or do petty jobs,” he said. Katariya said no one has opposed such banners till date, “But we have come to know that Christians in our village are unhappy. We have urged the villagers to maintain peace,” he added.
Sub-Inspector B L Raizada, who visited the village said that they have spoken to both Hindu tribals and the converted people. The police officer said that they have assured that no problem of law and order will arise in the village. “We have not told the villagers to bring the banners or board down. Some of the villagers are against the outsiders spreading Christianity. Therefore, such boards and banners have installed by them,” said Raizada.
In April 2018, the village of Kesalingayapalli in Andhra Pradesh, located about 35 KM from the Kadapa district in the state had proudly declared itself to be “Hindu only”, by erecting a saffron board at the village’s entrance. The villagers had taken a decision to make such a proclamation after Christian evangelists had tried to convert the villagers to their religion by promising money and medicine.
Recently, nearly 200 tribal Christian families in Gujarat that had earlier converted to Christianity returned back to Hinduism. The people who had converted to Christianity had believed that they would not fall ill and be saved from evil spirits if they follow Christianity. In this event, nearly 700 members belonging to 200 families were made to wear ‘kanthi mala’ around their neck after puja was held.
As we have reported earlier, the Modi government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking permission to release the land acquired around the site of Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya and return 67 acres of land, excluding 0.313 acres of disputed land, to Ram Janambhoomi Nyas.
The move by the Modi government has given Hindus a ray of hope as there had been considerable disenchantment with the continuous delays in the case in the Supreme Court.
Finally GOI files Writ Petition in SC to give undisputed acquired land 60 Acres to start construction of Ram Mandir.
Modi Govt requests Supreme Court to withdraw it’s decision of status quo so that it can handover 67 acres to Sri Ramjanmabhumi Nyas. BIGG decision on #RamMandir
The Congress’ reaction to the Narendra Modi government’s latest move would be rather interesting. It is the second ‘six’ that Narendra Modi has hit in the ‘slog overs’ leading to the General Elections later this year after its quota move for the General Class. In the quota matter, the Congress was caught completely unaware and it huffed and puffed and eventually, had no choice but to support the government on the issue.
On the Ram Mandir issue, the party is much more invested and had much more time to prepare its response to any move that the BJP might have made. Its senior leader Kapil Sibal had actually told the Court to defer the trial until 2019, or as many inferred until the Lok Sabha elections were over.
However, the Congress party isn’t really in a position to publicly oppose the NDA government’s latest move. The Prime Minister and other senior leaders have repeatedly blamed the Congress party for the delays in the Court and any public move by the Congress will only further hurt their electoral prospects.
Moreover, Congress has made a lot of effort in recent times to shed its anti-Hindu image. And the Ram Mandir issue has become the litmus test for support to Hindu interests. If the Congress party interferes with the government’s latest move in the Court, then all their past efforts would have gone to waste.
Like the quota move, Congress is again caught in a situation where it has no choice but to either maintain silence on the entire matter or voice their support for it. The BJP has once again twisted the opposition into playing a game it has nothing to gain from but has a lot to lose.
The government’s move in the dispute has also sent the right message to its core voter-base and will galvanize them ahead of the elections. While the government has displayed concrete intent with the move, it remains to be seen how successful it actually proves to be.
The Central Government on Monday, opposing an appeal against the single judge order, asking National Herald publisher AJL to vacate its premises, told the Delhi High court that AJL has ‘clandestinely’ transferred its majority shares to Young India (YI), in which Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are shareholders.
Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, appearing before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said that the land was allocated to AJL on lease for a printing press and this “dominant purpose” was stopped several years back and that AJL had clandestinely transferred the property to Young Indian.
Mehta also informed the court that AJL had violated the lease agreement and revived the National Herald only after the Centre had sent a notice for inspection of the property in September 2016.
The court was hearing the AJL appeal challenging the December 21, 2018, order of a single judge, dismissing its plea against the Union Government’s October 30 decision to take over the ‘Herald House’ building in Delhi belonging to the Congress mouthpiece National Herald for violations of the specified conditions on which the land was allocated.
The single-judge bench in its order on December 21, had also noted that by transferring AJL’s 99 per cent shares to Young Indian company, the beneficial interest of AJL’s property worth Rs 413.40 crore stands clandestinely transferred to the Young Indian company.
Defending AJL, senior advocate, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, argued that AJL could not be penalised for a “small hiatus” in publication after 2008 due to a financial crunch considering its history of publishing newspaper since 1938.
The High court has set the next date of hearing on February 1.
National Herald scam is one of the most notable legal cases in Indian history since the Gandhis are directly accused. Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, along with their aides – Oscar Fernandez, Motilal Vohra and Sam Pithroda are alleged to have involved in massive ‘cheating and breach of trust’ in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YIL), as assets worth crores of rupees had been allegedly transferred for purposes other than originally intended for a paltry sum. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi got unconditional bail in December 2015.
Bharatiya Janta Party’s MLA and firebrand Hindu Leader Raja Singh, on Monday, stopped a truck, carrying over 57 cows and calves, at Shamirpet region of Telangana along with Gau Rakshaks. The truck according to MLA was transporting cows and calves to slaughterhouses. Raja Singh is BJP’s only lawmaker in Telangana assembly, who in past too, has been seen taking a tough stand on Gau Raksha or Cow Protection.
In the video uploaded on Facebook, Raja Singh and his companions can be seen stopping a truck and climbing on the top of it. In the video, cows and calves can be seen loaded in the truck, covered by sides but open on above. Raja Singh inquires about the truck from two men sitting in the truck. MLA later handed over the cows to Cow Shelter and also registered a case.
According to a police official, the cows were transported in the lorry from Odisha. It is still not ascertained, whether the cows were getting transported to slaughterhouses or not.
“We got a tip about this truck transporting cows to a slaughterhouse. So, I along with police officials and Gau Rakshaks chased the truck. We counted the number of cows and calves to 57. Then we registered a complaint at Sharimpat police station, and 6 people have been arrested” Raja Singh gave the details about the incident in the video. He added that cow slaughtering is not a mere Telangana’s issue, but a national issue too. He appealed to Gau Rakshaks to undertake legal and peaceful way to prevent slaughtering of cows than indulging in violence.
Last year, Raja Singh had resigned from BJP and as an MLA to “commit himself” to Gauraksha. He had said that for him, Dharma and Gau-Raksha (cow protection) is more important than Politics. He had also stated that the government of Telangana is a ‘Gau-hatyari sarkar’ (cow-killer government). He also had accused the Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekhar Rao, of planning to organize the slaughter of scores of cattle on Eid to get Muslims to vote for his party.
He was re-elected from Goshamahal Assembly, during the last year’s assembly elections. He had hit headlines recently when he had declared that he will not take oath in front of pro-tem Speaker of the Telangana assembly Mumtaz Ahmed Khan belonging to the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen or AIMIM.
“I will not take oath in front of a person, whose party wants to finish the Hindu community, wage war in the country and refuse to chant Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata ki Jay” He had said. He had also accused CM KC Rao of colluding with AIMIM.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry into active politics is anything but unprecedented. Every Indian knew that sooner or later she would take the plunge, not just because she would regularly campaign in her mother and brother’s constituencies i.e. Raebareli and Amethi respectively, but also because even without holding any official position, she was a part of most key decision making including the selection of Chief Minister for recently concluded Vidhan Sabha elections at Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
However, she has never been dragged into matters concerning her husband or asked questions related to the abysmal performance of the Congress party. She was spared from the wrath of political competition because she was not an ‘active’ politician or an office bearer of the Congress Party. She was not held accountable for the dismal performance of her party or repeated charges of nepotism primarily because ‘technically’ she was not a beneficiary of the political outfit.
On January 23 2019, after the Congress Party announced her as the Congress General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East), things changed. She is no more just the sister of Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi or daughter of Former Prime Minister, Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi. She is now an official representative of the grand old party. I assumed she is now obliged to be answerable and accountable to the electorate. Since the Indian Constitution gives me the right to freedom of expression and the democratic values of this land allow me to question the status quo, I just did that. I merely exercised this right when I asked the freshly appointed office bearer, five innocuous questions in a short video.
My questions contoured largely alleged corruption charges on her husband, charges of nepotism and the kind of changes an electorate can expect with her advent into the party. Little did I know that courtiers of the para-dropped politician would get unsettled by my curiosity? I was asked by certain cadre members and functionaries to ‘watch my words’ as no one is allowed to question the ‘family’. Certain sections of the media called my questions bad in taste because the person in question was ‘Priyanka Gandhi’, who exudes the charisma and dynamism of Indira Gandhi.
But does that make Priyanka Gandhi Vadra beyond rectitude? Moreover, if there are efforts to curb someone like me who has zero political influence, imagine the extent of duress on those voices that have the potential to change opinions by virtue of their words.
Freedom of Expression is not for all
I have questioned leaders across the political spectrum on a myriad of issues, through my opinion pieces in print media, social media, and on national television and I say this with complete responsibility that I have never been warned of the impending consequences. It is possible that I was, as I mentioned earlier, a speck in the larger scheme of things to be noticed. It is also possible that those, whom I questioned, believed that I had the right to question them.
Sadly, the same doesn’t seem to be true when it comes to the first family in the Congress party.
It is outright comical that a party that struts around as the self-proclaimed custodian of freedom of expression has little appreciation for the concept, leave alone practising it. Implicit immunization of the first family from accountability reeks of deep-seated feudalism that has plagued the grand old party for over a century. It wouldn’t be incorrect to assume that I wouldn’t have come under the radar had I questioned the Party and not a family member.
Intolerance Trumps
Does anyone remember the deluge of awards that made their way back on account of the ‘growing intolerance’ under the elected government of the day, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi? The brigade is obviously oblivious to the simmering intolerance in the Opposition. Their urge to preserve tolerance as a virtue is aroused only when it suits them because I do not see them returning any awards to express anguish against the growing political intolerance in West Bengal or even Madhya Pradesh.
How is it okay for students in JNU to raise potentially inflammatory slogans and not safe for me to ask questions to a politician? Since when did it become unsafe to raise questions to the Congress Party?
How is it responsible politics when an elected representative and President of the Principal opposition party Shri Rahul Gandhi to make declarative statements like ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ and alleges the Prime Minister with unsubstantiated charges but uncomfortable when a private tax-paying citizen merely questions a politician?
I have asked very basic questions and I am sure I will receive answers in due course of time. I wish her great luck and success in her new innings. Meanwhile, I leave a question for all readers: How can Priyanka Gandhi Vadra be touted as Indira 2.0 and yet expected to be treated with kid gloves. Both cannot exist together.
The male to female ratio in India has been a matter of concern for a very long time. The number of girl children being born, or surviving after birth has been traditionally less compared to boys. From female infanticide to poor nutrition provided to the girl child, various factors have contributed to this skewed sex ratio.
Traditionally, the north Indian states have been under the scanner for skewed sex ratio, due to rampant sex determination tests and abortion of female foeticide prevalent in those states. It is generally assumed that the sex ratio is better in the southern states compared to states like Punjab and Haryana due to these reasons.
But the data collated by the Registrar General of India using birth and death registrations across the country shows that South Indian states also have worrying sex ratio, and the decline in the ratio in some of the southern states is among the highest.
State wise sex ration at birth
The data shows that the sex ratio at birth in Andhra Pradesh was 974 girls for 1000 boys in 2007, which has come down to 806 in the year 2016, a huge decline of 168 points. The state now shares the place of lowest sext ration in the country with Rajasthan. The ratio was 1004 for Karnataka in 2007, but it has come down by 108 points to 896 in 2016. Tamil Nadu also has seen a decline of 95 points from 935 to 840 during the same period. Only Kerala sees a reverse of this trend, where the sex ratio improved marginally by 10 points from 944 to 954 during the 2007-2016 period.
The ratio remained stable for Haryana during the decade, which was 860 in 2007 and 865 in 2016, while Punjab an improvement from 820 to 857. The ratio in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh remained mostly stable, with marginal improvement in the number of girl children born.
State wise sex ratio at birth from 2007 to 2016
The numbers show that while northern states have been vilified for its bad sex ratio earlier, implying the southern states are better in this regard, the reverse was happening on the ground. While the northern states have almost arrested the decline in the ratio, southern states have seen the largest decline in the ratio in a decade. This decline was so large that it cancelled the improvement made in several other states, and the national ratio came down from 903 to 877 during the same period.
This data proves that the gender ratio is not depended on geography and regional issues, as often assumed. This is a much bigger problem that affects most of the country, not just selected states or regions. Therefore, to label it as a regional problem is actually self-defeating and detrimental to society, as it leads to a wrong analysis of the problem. The country needs to work towards fixing systemic issues engraved in the society, not name calling based on region as the problem is no longer a region specific.
