Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).

Assertion (A): Balban made his government firm and centralised all authority in his hands.
Reason (R): He wanted to protect the north-west frontier against Mongol invasions.

Select the correct answer from the codes given below:

A) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

B) (A) is false, but (R) is true.

C) Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

D) (A) is true, but (R) is false.

This MCQ is part of the UP PSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs) series, focusing on UPPSC Prelims 2024 (GS Paper I)