Senior journalist Tavleen Singh on Wednesday wondered why would Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath attack Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi when Gorakhpur “looks much, much worse”.
Interesting that Yogi Adityanath should attack Rahul Gandhi for lack of development in Amethi. Gorakhpur looks much, much worse!!
— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) October 11, 2017
As expected, it started a debate and as expected again, those who disagree with her were immediately referred to as ‘trolls’.
If people disagree, they’re trolls? Everyone must agree with you all the time?
— Nayanika (@nayanikaaa) October 11, 2017
Meanwhile, Twitter user @Nesenag schooled Tavleen by giving point to point comparison between Gorakhpur and Amethi.
He started with the literacy rate between two constituencies, as literacy rate can be a very basic parameter of development.
Gorakhpur has a literacy rate of 71%, male literacy of 81% and female of 59% while Amethi has a literacy of 59%, male 64% and female 53% pic.twitter.com/YHz6ZgMgs6
— The Masakadzas (@Nesenag) October 11, 2017
Amethi has been a Congress bastion since decades now, with Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi collectively represented it in Lok Sabha for over 25 years.
Gorakhpur has 28% of its people living below poverty line compared to 54% below poverty line in Amethi pic.twitter.com/lWD2Xr82gC
— The Masakadzas (@Nesenag) October 11, 2017
Poverty is yet another barometer for development. This is also fascinating since former Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother’s 1971 election slogan was ‘Garibi Hatao’ (eradicate poverty). Seems like Amethi still has a lot of catching up to do.
This is based on an old data, as per this 43% of households in Gorakhpur have access to electricity compared to 14% in Amethi pic.twitter.com/rkwG4cqWDT
— The Masakadzas (@Nesenag) October 11, 2017
While the data available is not updated, this, too, clearly shows which MP has been trying to keep the promise.
This is 2007-08 survey, Gorakhpur has 25% households with toilets compared compared to 14% in Amethi in 2014 pic.twitter.com/UD9nqDJAW9
— The Masakadzas (@Nesenag) October 11, 2017
At a time when we are trying to work hard towards making India open defecation free, Amethi again could do with some more attention from their MP.
As per 2015-16 survey, the data shows a much better picture for Gorakhpur over Amethi in terms of availabilities of basic amenities and standard of living.
Most data points I used for Gorakhpur is from 2007-08. As per the 2015-16 survey, 40% households have access to LPG and 75% to electricity pic.twitter.com/pjQievP42O
— The Masakadzas (@Nesenag) October 11, 2017
Now, if only journalists hadn’t outsourced fact checking to readers…
