BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 135 of 143

Correct — B, Giriraj Singh (Begusarai). The Union Council of Ministers was sworn in on 9 June 2024 after the 18th Lok Sabha elections, and in the portfolios announced immediately afterwards Giriraj Singh — returned from Begusarai in Bihar — was made Minister of Textiles. Every other name in the list is also a Cabinet Minister in the same council, which is what makes the question a real test rather than a giveaway: Bhupender Yadav holds Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Gajendra Singh Shekhawat holds Culture and Tourism; and Rajiv Ranjan Singh, better known as Lalan Singh and elected from Munger in Bihar, holds Panchayati Raj together with Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. So the option set is not four plausible names of whom three are inventions — it is four real Cabinet Ministers of whom you must know which one took Textiles. Note the deliberate Bihar squeeze in the middle of the list: two of the four, Giriraj Singh from Begusarai and Lalan Singh from Munger, are Bihar MPs in the same Cabinet, and a candidate who remembers only 'a Bihar minister got it' still has a coin toss. Bihar was in fact heavily represented in this council — eight ministers in all, four of Cabinet rank (Jitan Ram Manjhi, Lalan Singh, Giriraj Singh and Chirag Paswan) and four Ministers of State (Ram Nath Thakur, Nityanand Rai, Satish Chandra Dubey and Raj Bhushan Choudhary) — which is exactly why BPSC treats the portfolio list as fair game.

• (a)Bhupendra Yadav (Alvar) — A Cabinet Minister in the same council, but with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He is a Rajasthan MP from Alwar, and the constituency printed beside the name is the clue: none of Textiles' recent political associations run through Rajasthan.
• (c)Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Jodhpur) — Also in the Cabinet, holding Culture and Tourism. The confusion is with his previous term, when he headed Jal Shakti — a candidate tracking who moved where in June 2024 can easily slot him into the wrong ministry, but Textiles was never his.
• (d)Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh (Munger) — The sharpest trap, because he is the other Bihar Cabinet Minister on the list. He was given Panchayati Raj along with Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, not Textiles. A candidate who narrows the field to 'a Bihar MP' is left with a fifty-fifty guess between him and Giriraj Singh.

Under Article 75 of the Constitution the Prime Minister is appointed by the President and the other ministers are appointed by the President on the Prime Minister's advice; the distribution of work among them flows from Article 77(3), under which the President makes rules for the more convenient transaction of the Government's business and for its allocation among ministers — in practice the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, amended each time a portfolio changes hands. That is why a portfolio list is a constitutional document and not merely a news item: a minister's authority to act comes from the ministry allocated to him, not from his seniority. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha alone under Article 75(3), and since the 91st Amendment its total strength cannot exceed 15 per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha. The Council has three tiers — Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, and Ministers of State with Independent Charge — a distinction that is a matter of convention and warrant of precedence rather than of the constitutional text.

Portfolio questions cannot be reasoned out; they are recall, and the only useful preparation is to learn the Cabinet as a table of name, constituency, state and ministry rather than as a list of names. Two habits help in the exam hall. First, use the constituency the setter has helpfully printed — it tells you the state, and many portfolios have a political geography attached. Second, learn the ministries that are contested between two candidates from the same state, because that is where setters build their traps; here, both Bihar names in the list sit in the same Cabinet, so 'it was a Bihar MP' is not enough to answer. The wider point for a BPSC candidate is that the Union Council of Ministers matters to this paper mainly through Bihar's share of it. Eight ministers came from Bihar in June 2024, so the state's representation, the parties they belonged to and the ministries they were given are all examinable, and the same names recur in state-politics questions.

• The Union Council of Ministers headed by Narendra Modi was sworn in on 9 June 2024, after the 18th Lok Sabha elections, with portfolios announced immediately afterwards
• Giriraj Singh, MP from Begusarai in Bihar, was appointed Union Minister of Textiles
• Bhupender Yadav took Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Gajendra Singh Shekhawat took Culture and Tourism; Rajiv Ranjan 'Lalan' Singh took Panchayati Raj along with Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying
• Bihar supplied eight ministers to this council — four of Cabinet rank (Jitan Ram Manjhi, Lalan Singh, Giriraj Singh, Chirag Paswan) and four Ministers of State (Ram Nath Thakur, Nityanand Rai, Satish Chandra Dubey, Raj Bhushan Choudhary)
• Ministers are appointed by the President on the Prime Minister's advice under Article 75; business is allocated among them under Article 77(3) through the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961
• Under the 91st Constitutional Amendment the Council of Ministers cannot exceed 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha

• Stopping at 'a Bihar MP' when two Bihar Cabinet Ministers appear in the same option list
• Carrying over a minister's previous-term portfolio; several ministers changed ministries between the 17th and 18th Lok Sabha councils
• Assuming the constituency in brackets is decoration — it identifies the state and is often the fastest way to cut the list in half

BPSC asks the Union Cabinet as name-and-portfolio recall and prints the constituency beside each name, which both helps the prepared candidate and sets the trap, since it lets the setter place two ministers from the same state in one list. UPSC does not ask who currently holds a ministry; it asks the constitutional machinery around it — which article governs the appointment of ministers, whether a nominated member may be made a minister, or to which House the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which article of the Constitution provides that the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People ?

  • (a)Article 74
  • (b)Article 75
  • (c)Article 77
  • (d)Article 78

  Answer(b) Article 75 — clause (3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha; Article 74 provides for the Council to aid and advise the President, and Article 77 covers the conduct of government business.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Union Council of Ministers formed in June 2024, which portfolio was held by Bhupender Yadav ?

  • (a)Textiles
  • (b)Environment, Forest and Climate Change
  • (c)Panchayati Raj
  • (d)Culture and Tourism

  Answer(b) Environment, Forest and Climate Change — Textiles went to Giriraj Singh, Panchayati Raj to Lalan Singh and Culture and Tourism to Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.