CHANDIGARH: Miss World, Manushi Chhillar who has returned to India after becoming the sixth Indian woman to win the honour. A native of Haryana, her victory has found her an endless stream of offers and gifts. It was, however, Bhupinder Singh Hooda's offer that ruffled a couple of feathers. The former chief minister urged the state government to give the 21 year old £6,00,000 as a cash award and a residential plot for the achievement.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar did not take too fondly to the statement, and reacted by saying Hooda's thinking was “confined to plots and cash only” and asking him to think above all that. Khattar, in his retaliation, accused his predecessor of “indulging in cheap politics,” and advised him to refrain from making personal comments. “Although I did not raise my own family and have no son or daughter, I always remain deeply concerned about sons and daughters of the state, and considered them as my family. For me, whole Haryana is my family,” he said. Hooda was quick to lash back, saying “only those with daughters can understand the importance of a daughter.”
To Hooda's comment, Khattar said it did not make any difference to him, but it did reflect his mindset. He said if the former CM was so concerned about the daughters, why he did not take any steps during his tenure to curb female foeticide, which was responsible for the imbalanced sex ratio in Haryana. He said the present government had not only been successful in addressing the problem of skewed sex ratio, but had also saved the lives of thousands of girls who were about to die in the wombs of their mothers. Khattar asserted that Hooda couldn't feel the pain of a father more than him.
Before the whole fiasco, Khattar had announced that his government would honour Chhillar after consultation with her, and would also utilise her services for social cause. “She has brought laurels to the country and the state on her own, and she would be suitably honoured after a round of consultation with her.”
