Indian Politics Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Gulzarilal Nanda became acting prime minister immediately on Nehru's death in May 1964.

He held the post for thirteen days until Lal Bahadur Shastri was chosen, and again for thirteen days after Shastri's death in 1966. He is the only person to have been acting prime minister twice.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 29 subjects that may be devolved to panchayats

The Eleventh Schedule, inserted by the 73rd Amendment in 1992, lists 29 subjects that state legislatures may devolve to panchayats - among them agriculture, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, rural housing, drinking water, roads, education, health, poverty alleviation and the public distribution system. The wording is permissive rather than mandatory: Article 243-G says the legislature may endow panchayats with such powers. That is why devolution has been so uneven, with Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal transferring substantial functions and funds while others transferred little. The distinction between devolving functions, funds and functionaries - the three Fs - is the usual measure of how real the transfer has been. Its urban counterpart is the Twelfth Schedule, added by the 74th Amendment, listing 18 subjects for municipalities. The Eighth Schedule lists languages and the Ninth holds laws shielded from judicial review, though that shield is no longer absolute.

Answer: B

The Girglani Committee was appointed to examine violations of Government Order 610 in Andhra Pradesh.

GO 610 of 1985 required that non-locals appointed to posts reserved for locals in the Telangana region be repatriated. The committee found the order had been widely breached, and its report became a grievance in the movement for a separate Telangana.

Answer: C

The Ninth Schedule holds acts and regulations of state legislatures dealing chiefly with land reform, which are protected from challenge on the ground that they violate fundamental rights.

It was added by the First Amendment in 1951. In 2007 the Supreme Court held that laws placed in it after 1973 can still be reviewed if they violate the basic structure.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The Vice President of India

The Vice President of India is ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, under Article 64, and presides over its sittings. This makes the office structurally different from the Lok Sabha’s. The Speaker is elected from among the members of that House; the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is not a member of it at all. In his absence the Deputy Chairman, who is a member and is elected by the House, presides. The Vice President has no other regular function, but acts as President when that office falls vacant, and did so when V. V. Giri stepped in after Zakir Husain’s death in 1969. He is elected by an electoral college of the members of both Houses of Parliament - unlike the President, whose electoral college also includes the state assemblies. He may be removed by a resolution of the Rajya Sabha passed by a majority of all its members and agreed to by the Lok Sabha; while such a resolution is under consideration, he does not preside.

Answer: C

Correct answer: 42nd Amendment

The 42nd Amendment of 1976 inserted Part IVA with ten Fundamental Duties, following the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee. An eleventh, on the education of children, was added by the 86th Amendment in 2002.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The right to privacy

The right to privacy appears nowhere in the text. The Supreme Court held it to be a fundamental right in K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India in 2017, decided unanimously by nine judges, reading it into the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 as well as into other freedoms. The judgment overruled two earlier decisions, M. P. Sharma and Kharak Singh, which had held that no such right existed. It has since underpinned the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex relations, the data protection framework, and limits on the use of Aadhaar. Article 21 has proved the most generative provision in the Constitution. The Court has read into it the right to livelihood, to a clean environment, to health, to legal aid, to a speedy trial, to shelter, to education, and to die with dignity. The other three options are all expressly enumerated: speech in Article 19(1)(a), equality in Article 14, and the right against exploitation in Articles 23 and 24.

Answer: D

Correct answer: A Union of States

Article 1 declares: India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. The choice of words was deliberate, and Dr Ambedkar explained it in the Assembly. Two things were meant. First, the Indian union is not the result of an agreement among the states, as the American federation was. Second, no state has the right to secede from it - the union is indestructible even though the states are not. The states are indeed alterable: Article 3 lets Parliament form new states, alter boundaries and change names by ordinary law, needing only the views of the affected legislature, which it is not bound to accept. That is a substantial departure from classic federalism, where a state’s territory cannot be changed without its consent. The Constitution never uses the word federal, but the structure is federal in substance - a division of powers, a written constitution, an independent judiciary - with a strong centre. Hence the common descriptions of it as quasi-federal or federal with a unitary bias.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 12

The Constitution now has 12 schedules. It began with eight, and four have been added by amendment. They are worth knowing in outline. The First lists the states and union territories. The Second sets out the emoluments of the President, Governors, judges and the CAG. The Third gives the forms of oath. The Fourth allots Rajya Sabha seats to the states. The Fifth and Sixth deal with the administration of scheduled areas and tribal areas, the Sixth applying to Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. The Seventh contains the three legislative lists. The Eighth lists the 22 languages. The four added later are the Ninth (1951, laws immune from judicial review), the Tenth (1985, anti-defection), and the Eleventh and Twelfth (1992, the subjects devolved to panchayats and municipalities). The Ninth Schedule’s immunity is no longer absolute: the Supreme Court held in 2007 that laws placed in it after 1973 can still be tested against the basic structure.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The 69th Amendment

The 69th Amendment of 1991 inserted Articles 239-AA and 239-AB, designating Delhi the National Capital Territory of Delhi and giving it a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers. Its position remains distinctive: it is a union territory with a legislature, not a state. The Assembly may legislate on matters in the State and Concurrent Lists except public order, police and land, which remain with the Union through the Lieutenant Governor. That division has been the source of repeated friction and litigation between the elected government and the centre. Puducherry is the other union territory with a legislature, under Article 239-A, and Jammu and Kashmir became a third in 2019. The 73rd and 74th Amendments of 1992 dealt with panchayats and municipalities, and the 61st of 1988 lowered the voting age to 18.