The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to which of the following?

The correct answer is C, 1980. The Bharatiya Janata Party was founded on 6 April 1980, after the Janata Party broke up.

Its ancestor was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, started by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951. In 1977 the Jana Sangh merged with other opposition groups to form the Janata Party, which came to power after the Emergency. When that coalition split in 1979, its former Jana Sangh members left and set up the BJP in 1980, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as its first president. The party's election symbol is the lotus. It first led a government in 1996 for thirteen days, and then from 1998 to 2004 under Vajpayee.

A is wrong: 1957 was the year of the second general election, not of this party's birth. B is wrong: 1934 falls deep in the colonial period, long before the BJP existed. D is wrong: 1967 was the year of the fourth general election and of the first non-Congress governments in several states.

Exam tip: Jana Sangh in 1951, Janata Party in 1977, and the BJP founded on 6 April 1980 with Vajpayee as its first president.

The correct answer is D, India. India is the standard example of a holding together federation, because one large country chose to divide its powers among states while keeping a strong central government.

Federations are formed in two ways. In a coming together federation, independent states join hands by choice, keep roughly equal powers and stay fairly strong against the centre; the United States, Australia and Switzerland were made this way. In a holding together federation, a single big country decides to share its power with the states, and the central government usually stays the more powerful partner; India, Spain and Belgium belong to this group. Such federations often give unequal powers to different units, which is why India has special arrangements for some states and for the union territories.

A is wrong: New Zealand is a unitary state and not a federation at all. B is wrong: Australia was formed when its colonies came together in 1901. C is wrong: the USA is the textbook coming together federation, made by thirteen states in 1787.

Exam tip: coming together — USA, Australia, Switzerland; holding together — India, Spain, Belgium.

The correct answer is D, Attorney General of India. Article 76 provides for the Attorney General, the highest law officer of the Union, appointed by the President from among persons qualified to be a judge of the Supreme Court. He advises the government on legal matters, appears for it in the Supreme Court and in any High Court, and has the right to speak in both Houses of Parliament and their committees, though he cannot vote. He holds office during the pleasure of the President and is not a whole-time government servant, so he may take private practice but cannot advise against the Union. The Solicitor General, who assists him, is not mentioned in the Constitution. A is wrong because the Finance Commission is under Article 280. B is wrong because the UPSC comes under Article 315. C is wrong because the Election Commission is set up by Article 324. Exam tip: remember 76 Attorney General, 148 CAG, 280 Finance Commission, 315 UPSC and 324 Election Commission.

The correct answer is C, Article 262. Article 262 lets Parliament provide by law for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint about the use, distribution or control of the waters of an inter-State river or river valley, and it also permits Parliament to provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in such a dispute; the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act of 1956 was enacted under it, and tribunals are set up under that Act. Option A is wrong because Article 256 obliges a State to exercise its executive power so as to ensure compliance with laws made by Parliament. Option B is wrong because Article 257 deals with the Union's control over States, including directions on communications of national importance and on the protection of railways. Option D is wrong because Article 263 creates the Inter-State Council, an advisory body, not a tribunal.

The correct answer is C, Public health and sanitation, which remains an entry of the State List. The 42nd Amendment Act of 1976 moved exactly five subjects from the State List to the Concurrent List: education, forests, weights and measures, protection of wild animals and birds, and administration of justice with the constitution and organisation of all courts except the Supreme Court and the High Courts. Option A is wrong because education is the best known of those five transfers, and it is the reason both Parliament and the State legislatures now legislate on schooling. Option B is wrong because forests moved in the same year, which is why the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 is a central law. Option D is wrong because the establishment of standards of weights and measures was already a Union entry, and the State entry on weights and measures was shifted to the Concurrent List by this amendment.