Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his part in which battle of the 1971 war?

The correct answer is B, Major Somnath Sharma. On 3 November 1947 Major Sharma of the 4th battalion of the Kumaon Regiment held the village of Badgam near Srinagar with one company against a far larger raiding force, and by refusing to pull back he kept the Srinagar airfield from falling, on which the whole airlift of Indian troops into Kashmir depended. He was killed in the action and the award was posthumous. Option A, Second Lieutenant Rama Raghoba Rane of the Bombay Sappers, is the strongest distractor, because he was the first recipient to be decorated while living, having cleared mines and roadblocks under fire so that armour could advance. Option C, Lance Naik Karam Singh of 1 Sikh, also received the award for the Jammu and Kashmir operations of 1948, at Tithwal, and survived. Option D, Naik Jadunath Singh of 1 Rajput, received it posthumously for the defence of Taindhar in 1948. All four belong to the same operations, which is why they are grouped here.

The correct answer is B, 15 August 1947. The decoration was instituted on 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force, but it was given effect from 15 August 1947 so that acts of gallantry performed from the day of independence onwards could be recognised. That is why the very first award, to Major Somnath Sharma for the action at Badgam on 3 November 1947, is for a deed that preceded the creation of the medal. Option A, 26 November 1949, is the date on which the Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly, now marked as Constitution Day, and has nothing to do with this award. Option C, 26 January 1947, mixes the day and month of Republic Day with the wrong year; Republic Day itself falls in 1950. Option D, 1 January 1950, is an invented date offered because it looks administratively plausible. The pair to remember is institution in 1950 and effect from 1947.

The correct answer is A, Savitri Khanolkar. Born in Switzerland, she married an officer of the Indian Army, settled in India and studied its languages, art and traditions closely, and when the new republic needed its own decorations she was asked to design them. Besides the Param Vir Chakra she designed the Ashoka Chakra, the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra, drawing on Indian imagery such as the Vajra of Indra and the wheel of Ashoka. Option B, Nandalal Bose, was the artist who supervised the decoration and illumination of the original manuscript of the Constitution of India, which makes him a plausible but wrong answer. Option C, Pingali Venkayya, designed the flag from which the national flag was developed. Option D, Deenanath Bhargava, drew the national emblem of the lion capital for the Constitution manuscript under Nandalal Bose. Only Khanolkar designed the gallantry medals.

The correct answer is B, Ashoka Chakra. India maintains two parallel chains of gallantry awards. For bravery in the presence of the enemy, that is in war, the order runs Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra. For gallantry otherwise than in the face of the enemy, that is in peacetime, the order runs Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, and the Ashoka Chakra may also be conferred on civilians. The Ashoka Chakra therefore stands at the head of the peacetime chain exactly as the Param Vir Chakra stands at the head of the wartime one. Option A, the Maha Vir Chakra, is second in the wartime chain and is the commonest wrong answer here. Option C, the Kirti Chakra, is second in the peacetime chain and so corresponds to the Maha Vir Chakra. Option D, the Shaurya Chakra, is third in the peacetime chain and corresponds to the Vir Chakra.

The correct answer is A, Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon. During the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 he took off alone from Srinagar airfield while it was under attack by a formation of enemy aircraft, engaged them in the air over the airfield and was killed; the award was posthumous, and he remains the only member of the Air Force to receive it, while no member of the Navy has received it so far. Option B names Arjan Singh, who rose to be Marshal of the Indian Air Force and led the service in 1965, but his recognition came in other forms. Option C, Rakesh Sharma, was the first Indian in space, for which he received the Ashoka Chakra, a peacetime decoration, which makes him a well-placed distractor. Option D names a pilot of a much later episode who received a different gallantry award. The exception to memorise is Sekhon for the Air Force and Salaria for the one United Nations mission.