Indian Politics Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The Comptroller and Auditor-General audits the accounts of both the Union and the states.

Article 149 gives the office this dual role. The CAG's reports are laid before Parliament and each state legislature, where the Public Accounts Committee examines them. Ambedkar called the office the most important under the Constitution.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Parliament

Article 248 vests residuary powers in Parliament, which has exclusive power to make any law on a matter not enumerated in the Concurrent or State List, including the power to impose a tax not mentioned in either. This follows the Canadian model and departs from the American and Australian, where residuary powers rest with the states - a deliberate choice, and one of the features that makes Indian federalism centre-heavy. It matters because the lists were drawn up in 1949 and could not anticipate everything: cyberspace, information technology, space, and much else fall to Parliament through this article. The residuary power is also mentioned as Entry 97 of the Union List, which makes the position doubly clear. The courts have held that it should be resorted to only when a matter cannot be brought within any entry in the three lists, read as broadly as their language allows - so it is a residual power in fact as well as in name.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The Swaran Singh Committee

The Fundamental Duties were inserted as Part IV-A, Article 51-A, by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, which the government had appointed the previous year. Ten duties were listed originally - among them abiding by the Constitution, cherishing the ideals of the freedom struggle, protecting the sovereignty and integrity of India, promoting harmony, protecting the environment, and developing a scientific temper. An eleventh, requiring a parent or guardian to provide education to a child between six and fourteen, was added by the 86th Amendment in 2002. They are borrowed in conception from the constitution of the former USSR and, unlike the Fundamental Rights, are not directly enforceable by the courts - though Parliament may legislate to give effect to them, and courts have used them in interpretation. The other bodies named dealt with centre–state relations, panchayati raj and education respectively.

Answer: A

At a joint sitting a bill is passed by a simple majority of the members present and voting.

Article 108 provides for the joint sitting to resolve a deadlock between the Houses; the Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides. Since the Lok Sabha is much the larger House, its will normally prevails. It has been used only three times.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Changing the distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the states

Amendments touching the federal structure require, in addition to the special majority in each House, ratification by the legislatures of not less than half the states, by simple majority. The provisions concerned are listed in the proviso to Article 368: the election of the President and the manner of that election; the extent of the executive power of the Union and of the states; the Supreme Court and the High Courts; the distribution of legislative powers; any of the Lists in the Seventh Schedule; the representation of states in Parliament; and Article 368 itself. There is no time limit for ratification and no requirement that the states ratify in any order. The other three options fall in the categories that do not need it. Creating a new state and changing citizenship provisions can be done by ordinary law under Articles 3 and 11 respectively, and are not amendments at all. Changing judges’ salaries requires the special majority alone.

Answer: D

Jana Gana Mana was first sung on 27 December 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress.

Tagore had written it in Bengali. It was adopted as the national anthem by the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950, in a Hindi version of the first stanza, and takes 52 seconds to sing.

Answer: D

Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the national anthem on 24 January 1950, by the Constituent Assembly, two days before the Constitution came into force.

The same sitting adopted Vande Mataram as the national song, with equal status.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Article 267

Article 267 authorises Parliament to establish a Contingency Fund of India, placed at the disposal of the President, from which advances can be made to meet unforeseen expenditure pending authorisation by Parliament. The point of it is timing. All ordinary spending requires prior appropriation by law under Article 266, which takes time; the Contingency Fund allows urgent expenditure immediately, with the amount recouped once Parliament passes a supplementary appropriation. It is a revolving fund, restored to its full size after each withdrawal. It was established by the Contingency Fund of India Act of 1950, and its corpus has been raised over the years to ₹30,000 crore. Each state may establish a corresponding fund at the Governor’s disposal. The three government accounts should be kept distinct: the Consolidated Fund under Article 266(1) holds all revenues and needs appropriation; the Public Account under Article 266(2) holds money the government merely keeps as a banker and needs none; and the Contingency Fund under Article 267 is the imprest for emergencies.

Answer: D

Telangana, India's 29th state, was formed on 2 June 2014.

It was carved out of Andhra Pradesh under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014, after a movement running back to the 1950s. Hyderabad was made the joint capital of both states for up to ten years.

Answer: C

Article 22 protects against arrest and detention.

An arrested person must be told the grounds, allowed to consult a lawyer, and produced before a magistrate within 24 hours. The protections do not apply to enemy aliens or to preventive detention, for which the same article lays down separate safeguards.