Political Science Test - 12

The correct answer is option 4 i.e Morarji Desai

• Morarji Desai Government appointed the Second Backward Classes Commission under the chairmanship of B P Mandal in the year 1979 to investigate the conditions of the educationally and socially backward classes.
• The commission submitted its report in 1980.
• The commission recommended the 27% reservation for jobs.
• V P Singh Government declared reservation of 27% government jobs for the OBCs after 10 years.

Shah Bano case, was a controversial maintenance lawsuit in India. This case was a milestone in the Muslim women's search for justice and the beginning of the political battle over personal law.

The Correct answer is Indra Sawhney vs Union of India.

Key Points

• Indra Sawhney v. union of India- This case is also known as Mandal Commission Case. The court has held that barring any extraordinary situations reservation should not exceed 50 percent. Hence, option A is correct.

Additional Information

• Waman Rao Case (1981):-The SC again reiterated the Basic Structure doctrine. It also drew a line of demarcation as April 24th, 1973 i.e., the date of the Kesavananda Bharati judgment, and held that it should not be applied retrospectively to reopen the validity of any amendment to the Constitution which took place prior to that date.
• Shah Bano Begum case (1985):- Milestone case for Muslim women’s fight for rights. The SC upheld the right to alimony for a Muslim woman and said that the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is applicable to all citizens irrespective of their religion.
• This set off a political controversy and the government of the day overturned this judgment bypassing the Muslim Women (Protection on Divorce Act), 1986, according to which alimony need be given only during the iddat period (in tune with the Muslim personal law).
• Mithu v. State of Punjab-The Supreme Court has always said that the death sentence should be given rarely. In Mithu vs State of Punjab (1983), the Supreme Court ruled that the mandatory death penalty is unconstitutional.
• It struck down Section 303 in the IPC, which entailed a mandatory death sentence for a person who commits murder while serving a life term in another case.

• The 6^th Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21^st May 1991 by a suicide bomber from LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).
• He served as the Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989 after his mother's assassination in 1984.
• He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1991.

The correct answer is regional autonomy.

• The Anandpur Sahib resolution, 1973 was a demand for strengthening regional autonomy.

Key Points

• ​About Anandpur Sahib Resolution 1973:
  • The working committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal constituted a 12-member sub-committee on December 11, 1972, to formulate comprehensive policies and programs.
  • The sub-committee comprised S. Surjit Singh Barnala, S. Gurcharan Singh Tohra, S. Jiwan Singh Umranangal, the late S. Gurmeet Singh Muktsar, Dr. Bhagat Singh, S. Balwant Singh, the late S. Gian Singh Rarewala, S. Prem Singh Lalpura. S. Jaswinder Singh Brar, S. Bhag Singh, Maj-General Gurbakhash Singh, and S. Amar Singh Ambalavi.
  • The committee after serious deliberations at several meetings submitted a comprehensive report which was adopted by the working committee through a unanimous resolution at Shri Anandpur Sahib on October 17, 1973.
  • The general house of the Akali Dal endorsed the resolution at Amritsar on August 28, 1977.
  • And it was then endorsed by the open session of the 18th All-India Akali Conference on October 28 and 29, 1978 at Ludhiana.
  • The Akali Dal contested the 1977 elections to Parliament and the state Assembly on an election manifesto based on this resolution.​

Additional Information

• General Aims:
• ​The Akali Dal shall be active and committed to the realization of the following aims:
  • Propagation of the Sikh way of life and removal of atheism and un-Sikh thinking.
  • Maintaining the feeling of a separate independent entity of the Sikh Panth and creating an environment in which the “National Expression” of the Sikhs can be full and satisfactory.
  • Banishing illiteracy, untouchability, social inequities, and caste-based discrimination which are contrary to the great teachings of the great Gurus.
• Religious Aims:
• The following are some of the religious aims of the Dal:
  • Bringing about a new all-India gurudwara law which will ensure more efficient and meaningful management of places of worship and community centers than at present and helping in the achievement of re-integration of ancient Sikh preaching orders (such as Udasis and Nirmala's) into a dynamic Sikh society without encroaching upon their financial resources and property.
  • Bringing all the gurudwaras of the world under the banner of one organization to make the Sikh religious procedures and proceedings uniform throughout the world and pooling and making effective the aggregate resources of religious propagation.
  • Obtain free and self-regulated access to and control of Sri Nankana Sahib and other Sikh sacred places from which Sikhs have been torn asunder in the recent past.
• Political Aims:
  • The political aims of the Panth are definitely ingrained in the orders of the 10th Guru in the pages of Sikh history and in the perspective of the Khalsa Panth, the purpose of which is the preeminence of the Khalsa.
  • To give this “birthright” of the Khalsa a practical shape, the creation of the necessary environment and the achievement of a political constitution are necessary steps.
  • To achieve this end the Dal will use all possible means.
• The resolution says : 
  • The areas which have deliberately and intentionally been kept out of Punjab-Dalhousie in Gurdaspur district, Chandigarh, Pinjore, Kalka and Ambala, Una tehsil (Hoshiarpur district), the Nalagarh region. Shahbad and Guhla blocks of Karnal district, Sirsa tehsil, Tohana sub-tehsil and Ratia block of Hissar district, six tehsils of Ganganagar district in Rajasthan and other contiguous Punjabi-speaking and Sikh areas should be immediately included in Punjab and made into a single administrative unit wherein Sikhism and the interests of the Sikhs “can be especially protected”.
  • In this new Punjab, the authority of the Centre should be confined only to the defense of the country, foreign relations, communications, railways, and currency.
  • All the residuary subjects (departments) should be under the jurisdiction of Punjab which should have the right to frame its own constitution for these subjects.
  • Punjab would contribute its share of the necessary finances for Central subjects in the ratio of its members in the Lok Sabha-13/541 of the budget.
  • The Akali Dal will strive to make the Constitution of India federal in the real sense and ensure that the authority and representation of all the states are equal at the Centre.

 

A political party is a group of persons organized to contest the election and exercise political power in a legitimate manner. 

Key Points

• In September 1999, the General election for the thirteenth session Lok Sabha was held.
• The government was defeated (by a single vote) on a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha in April 1999 which leads to the 1999 general election.
• The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), formed the United National Democratic Alliance, a pre-election coalition of 24 parties (NDA). 
• The BJP and its allies received 41.3 per cent of the vote (297 seats), whereas the Congress Party (INC) and its allies received 34.7 per cent of the vote (136 seats)
• The National Democratic Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, achieved an outright majority in the Lok Sabha, marking the first time since 1984 that a party or alliance had done so.

Therefore, Bharatiya Janata Party is the Indian party that was the largest member of the United National Democratic Alliance in 1999. 

Important Points

• The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which won 32 seats, was the third major party.
• The BJP alone obtained 182 seats with 23.8% of the total vote. 
• This was the first time a non-INC party had been able to form a stable government coalition at the centre. 

The correct answer is Option 4.

Key Points

• In the parliamentary elections held in 1996, the United Front (a Janata Dal-led 13-party coalition) formed a government at the centre with the support of the Congress (I) Party in order to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power.
• It was led by Janata Dal and included the Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Asom Gana Parishad, Tamil Maanila Congress, Communist Party of India, and Telugu Desam Party.
• Gowda was sworn in as the new prime minister. His tenure, however, was short-lived. In April 1997 the Congress (I) Party withdrew its support for the coalition. The reason given was that, although Gowda’s minority United Front government was dependent upon the Congress, the prime minister did not consult the party regarding important matters.
• On April 11, 1997, Gowda lost a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha by a wide margin; Inder Kumar Gujral, then minister for external affairs, was chosen as the coalition leader.

The correct answer is Option 4.

Key Points

• Veer Savarkar (V.D.Savarkar) wrote Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? (1923), coining the term Hindutva (“Hinduness”) While being imprisoned in Andamans, It sought to define Indian culture as a manifestation of Hindu values; this concept grew to become a major tenet of Hindu nationalist ideology.
• The BJP advocated Hindutva (“Hindu-ness”), an ideology that sought to define Indian culture in terms of Hindu values, and it was highly critical of the secular policies and practices of the Indian National Congress (Congress Party).
• The BJP began to have electoral success in 1989, when it capitalized on anti-Muslim feeling by calling for the erection of a Hindu temple in an area in Ayodhya considered sacred by Hindus but at that time occupied by the Babri Masjid (Mosque of Bābur).
• By 1991 the BJP had considerably increased its political appeal, capturing 117 seats in the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament) and taking power in four states.

The correct answer is Rajiv Gandhi.

The decision to send the IPKF to Sri Lanka was taken by the then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, who held the post till 1989.

• The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was an Indian military contingent that conducted peacekeeping operations in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990.
• It was formed under the 1987 India-Sri Lanka Agreement, which aimed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between Sri Lanka. Tamil extremist groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan Army.

Additional Information

Name	Term of office	Remark
Indira Gandhi	24 January 1966 to 24 March 1977 11 years, 59 days	First female Prime Minister of India
Indira Gandhi	14 January 1980 to 31 October 1984 4 years, 291 days	The first lady who served as PM for the second term
Rajiv Gandhi	31 October 1984 to 2 December 1989 5 years, 32 days	Youngest to become PM (40 years old)
V. P. Singh	2 December 1989 to 10 November 1990 343 days	First PM to step down after a vote of no confidence
Atal Bihari Vajpayee	16 May 1996 to 1 June 1996 16 days	PM for shortest tenure
Atal Bihari Vajpayee	19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004  6 years, 64 days	The first non-congress PM who completed a full term as PM

The correct answer is Dr. Manmohan Singh.

• Dr. Manmohan Singh:
  • He was the 22nd Finance minister of India under the prime ministership of P. V. Narasimha Rao from 1991 to 1996.
  • He was also served as Prime minister of India two times i.e 2004 to 2009 and 2009 to 2014.

   Key Points

• Liberalization:
  • India's new Economic policy or Liberalization of India was announced and accepted in 1991.
  • It is a model of Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization of the Indian economy.
  • It was done during the Prime minister of P. V. Narasimha Rao.
• Main objectives of Liberalization policy:
  • The role of the public sector in the economy is diluted.
  • To achieve a higher economic growth rate and economic stabilization.
  • It aimed at increasing the participation of private sectors in all sectors of the Indian economy.
  • It aims to promote foreign trade and to reduce the debt of the country.
  • Some of the reforms are also carried out to achieve the development and growth of the Indian economy like foreign trade policies, tax reforms, foreign exchange reforms, trade and investment policy reforms, financial sector reforms, reforms in regulations of the industrial sector.

Additional Information

• P. V. Narasimha Rao:
  • He was the 12^th Prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996.
  • The liberalization policy of India (1991) came into action during his tenure.
• Morarji Desai:
  • He was the 6^th Prime minister of India from 1977 to 1979.
  • He was the 2^nd Deputy Prime minister of India from 1967 to 1969.
  • He was also served as the 6th and 9th Finance minister of India during 1959 - 1964 and 1967 - 1970 respectively.
• P. Chidambaram:
  • He held the office of Finance minister of India three times as follows:
  • 23rd Finance minister from 1996 - 1998.
  • 26th Finance minister from 2004 - 2008.
  • 28th Finance minister from 2012 - 2014.