Inquiry commissions such as the Shah Commission and the Liberhan Commission are appointed under which law?

The correct answer is D, 1979. The Second Backward Classes Commission, known as the Mandal Commission after its chairman Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal, was appointed on the first of January 1979 by the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai under Article 340 of the Constitution. It submitted its report in December 1980, identified a long list of socially and educationally backward communities and recommended twenty-seven per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central government services and in central educational institutions. Option A is wrong because 1990 is the year the recommendation was implemented, when the V. P. Singh government issued the office memorandum on OBC reservation, not the year of appointment. Option B is wrong because no backward classes commission was appointed in 1972. Option C is wrong because 1967 relates to the first Administrative Reforms Commission period and to the general elections of that year, not to this commission. The First Backward Classes Commission under Kaka Kalelkar had been appointed in 1953.

The correct answer is D, Mother Tongue. Every major Indian education commission has held that a child learns best in the language spoken at home. The Secondary Education Commission of 1952 under Dr A. Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar and the Education Commission of 1964 to 1966 under Dr D. S. Kothari both said the mother tongue should be the medium at the primary stage, and the Kothari Commission built its three-language formula on that base. The National Policy on Education and later policy documents repeat the same position. Option A is wrong because the regional language of a state may not be the language a particular child speaks, as with a tribal or migrant child, so it is a weaker rule than the mother tongue. Option B is wrong because introducing English as the medium at the primary stage works against comprehension, though it is taught as a language. Option C is wrong because the official language, Hindi or English for Union purposes, is chosen for administration and not for the comprehension of young learners.

The correct answer is A, Kaka Kalelkar. The First Backward Classes Commission was appointed in January 1953 under Article 340 with Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar, known as Kaka Kalelkar, as chairman, and it submitted its report in 1955. It listed more than two thousand communities as backward but the government rejected the report, in part because the chairman added a note of dissent doubting whether caste should be the test of backwardness. Option B is wrong because B. P. Mandal chaired the Second Backward Classes Commission of 1979. Option C is wrong because Justice Rajinder Sachar chaired the committee of 2005 on the status of Muslims in India. Option D is wrong because Justice R. S. Sarkaria chaired the commission of 1983 on Centre-State relations. Keeping the two backward classes commissions apart by chairman and year is the quickest way to answer this family of questions.

The correct answer is B, the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee. Appointed in 1957 to examine the working of the community development programme, it reported that development could not succeed without democratic decentralisation and recommended a three-tier structure: the gram panchayat at the village level, the panchayat samiti at the block level and the zila parishad at the district level, with elected bodies at the base. Rajasthan was the first state to adopt the system, inaugurated at Nagaur in October 1959, followed by Andhra Pradesh. Option A is wrong because the Ashok Mehta Committee of 1977 recommended a two-tier system with the mandal panchayat and the zila parishad. Option C is wrong because the L. M. Singhvi Committee of 1986 recommended constitutional status for panchayats and the creation of nyaya panchayats. Option D is wrong because the G. V. K. Rao Committee of 1985 recommended that the district be the unit of planning with a district development commissioner.

The correct answer is B, Centre-State relations. The commission was appointed in 1983 under Justice Ranjit Singh Sarkaria, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, to review the working arrangements between the Union and the states. It reported in 1988 with recommendations that included the creation of the Inter-State Council, sparing use of Article 356, consultation with states before legislating on subjects in the Concurrent List, and appointment of Governors who are detached from local politics. Option A is wrong because banking reform was the work of the Narasimham Committees of 1991 and 1998. Option C is wrong because linguistic reorganisation was examined by the Dhar Commission of 1948, the JVP Committee of 1949 and the States Reorganisation Commission of 1953. Option D is wrong because poverty measurement was studied by the Lakdawala, Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees.