Indian Politics Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The key gives November, 1956 for the formation of the Modern Secretariat of Madhya Pradesh.

The present State of Madhya Pradesh came into being on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, with Bhopal as its capital, and the key takes that month. The other options (1957, 1958, 1959) all fall after the state was formed.

What could not be confirmed: no source was found that dates a body called the 'Modern Secretariat' separately, so this explanation rests on the formation of the state itself and on the key.

Answer: B

The Governor who had been Speaker of the Lok Sabha is Shri Balram Jakhar.

Balram Jakhar was Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1980 to 1989, the longest-serving Speaker, and was Governor of Madhya Pradesh from 2004 to 2009.

The other names in the list were not Speakers of the Lok Sabha, so they do not answer the question.

Jakhar also served as Union Agriculture Minister. Other Speakers of the Lok Sabha who later held constitutional posts include Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who became President.

Answer: B

The second Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh was B. R. Mandloi.

Pandit Ravishankar Shukla became the first Chief Minister of the new state on 1 November 1956 but died on 31 December 1956. Bhagwantrao Mandloi then held the office for about a month in January 1957, before Kailash Nath Katju became Chief Minister. Mandloi was Chief Minister again from 1962 to 1963.

Ravishankar Shukla was the first Chief Minister, K. N. Katju the third, and D. P. Mishra became Chief Minister later, in 1963.

Answer: C

V.C. Shukla was never Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Vidya Charan Shukla was a Union minister (information and broadcasting during the Emergency, and later external affairs and other portfolios). It was his elder brother, Shyama Charan Shukla, who served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, three times.

The others did hold the post: Dwarka Prasad Mishra (1963-67), Govind Narayan Singh (1967-69, leading the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal government) and Prakash Chandra Sethi (1972-75).

Answer: A

The order is saffron, white with a 24-spoke wheel, green.

The national flag has three equal horizontal bands: deep saffron at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The navy blue Ashoka Chakra in the centre of the white band has 24 spokes.

The options with green at the top invert the flag, and those with a 22-spoke wheel get the chakra wrong.

Answer: D

The correct matching is a-ii, b-v, c-iv, d-i, e-iii.

• P. V. Narasimha Rao: Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh (1971-73).
• Morarji Desai: Chief Minister of Bombay State (1952-56).
• H. D. Deve Gowda: Chief Minister of Karnataka (1994-96).
• Charan Singh: Chief Minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh (1967-68 and 1970).
• Narendra Modi: Chief Minister of Gujarat (2001-2014).

All four options agree that Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat; the first two wrongly give Narasimha Rao to Karnataka, and the third gives Morarji Desai to Uttar Pradesh.

Answer: B

The first chairman was Shri K. K. Goel.

After the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments required every state to set up a State Finance Commission every five years to recommend the sharing of resources with panchayats and municipalities, Rajasthan constituted its first State Finance Commission in 1994, chaired by K. K. Goyal (spelt Goel in the paper).

Hiralal Devpura, B. D. Kalla and Manik Chand Surana are Rajasthan political figures, but none of them was the chairman of the first State Finance Commission.

Answer: D

The first Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court was Kamal Kant Verma, usually spelt Kamla Kant Verma.

The High Court of Rajasthan was set up in 1949 when the princely states of the region were merged, with its seat at Jodhpur. Verma was its first Chief Justice, and K. N. Wanchoo, later Chief Justice of India, followed him.

Kailash Nath Wanchoo held the office, but as the second Chief Justice, so option A is a near miss. S. K. Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra are later judges, so they cannot be the first. The year of the court's creation is the quickest check against such distractors.

Answer: D

The maximum penalty is ₹ 25,000.

Under Section 20 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Central or State Information Commission can penalise a Public Information Officer who refuses an application, fails to reply in time, gives false information or destroys the information sought. The penalty is ₹ 250 for each day of delay, but the total may not exceed ₹ 25,000.

The smaller amounts in the options are not limits set by the Act; ₹ 25,000 is the ceiling.

Answer: C

The voting age was lowered by the 61st Amendment.

The Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1988 amended Article 326 to reduce the minimum age for voting in elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies from 21 to 18 years. It came into force in 1989.

The 57th Amendment dealt with reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes in the legislatures of some north-eastern states, the 60th raised the ceiling on the profession tax, and the 65th set up the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.