BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 137 of 142

Correct — A, K. R. Narayan. The paper spells it 'K. R. Narayan' and means Kocheril Raman Narayanan (1920–2005), and he is the only Indian President whose career answers every clause of the stem, in order. Thailand: Ambassador from 1967 to 1969. Turkey: Ambassador from 5 March 1973 to 1975. China: Ambassador from 7 July 1976 to 11 November 1978, the first Indian envoy sent to Beijing after the freeze that followed the 1962 war. The United States: Ambassador from 1980 to 1984, under Indira Gandhi. Between the China and the United States postings he was Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University — the 'Jawahar Lal University' of the stem — from 3 January 1979 to 14 October 1980, and he later said that spell shaped the rest of his public life. Every element of the question is in that sequence, and no other President comes close to it. The rest of the career runs on from there: after the Washington posting he entered electoral politics at Indira Gandhi's request, won the Ottapalam seat in Kerala and sat in the Lok Sabha from 31 December 1984 to 26 July 1992, held ministerial office, became Vice-President of India in 1992 and President in 1997, serving until 2002. He was the first Dalit to hold the office. He had come to the foreign service through an unusual door — a scholarship-funded degree at the London School of Economics under Harold Laski, who gave him a letter of introduction to Nehru, and Nehru who later described him as the best diplomat in the country. What makes this question answerable rather than a memory lottery is the combination it names: a professional diplomat with four ambassadorships and a university vice-chancellorship who then reached the presidency. Presidents drawn from the political class do not have that record, and the one President who was both an ambassador and a vice-chancellor was neither posted to those four capitals nor at that university.

• (b)R. Venkatraman — R. Venkataraman, the eighth President (1987–1992), came up through law, trade unionism and politics — a member of the Constituent Assembly, Union Finance and Defence Minister, then Vice-President from 1984. He was never an ambassador and never a vice-chancellor. UPSC has attached him to his memoir 'My Presidential Years', which is what he is usually asked about.
• (c)Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma — The ninth President (1992–1997) was a Congress politician of long standing — Chief Minister of the old Bhopal state, Union Communications Minister, Governor of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra, and Vice-President from 1987. His career is entirely domestic; there is no diplomatic posting in it, and the governorships are the closest thing to the ambassadorships the stem lists.
• (d)Dr. S. Radha Krishnan — The strongest distractor, because two of the stem's clauses genuinely fit him. S. Radhakrishnan was Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952, and he was a vice-chancellor twice over — Andhra University from 1931 to 1936 and Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948. But that is one embassy, not four, none of them the capitals named here, and both universities are the wrong ones. Jawaharlal Nehru University was established only on 22 April 1969, by which time Radhakrishnan's presidency had already ended.

Indian Presidents have been drawn from three broad backgrounds, and knowing which is which answers most questions of this type without any biography at all. The largest group is political: Rajendra Prasad, V. V. Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh, R. Venkataraman, Shankar Dayal Sharma, Pratibha Patil, Pranab Mukherjee, Ram Nath Kovind and Droupadi Murmu all came through party politics, legislatures or governorships. A smaller group is academic or professional: S. Radhakrishnan the philosopher, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam the aerospace scientist. K. R. Narayanan belongs to a category of one — a career diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service who rose to the presidency, having served in Rangoon, Tokyo, London and Hanoi before his four ambassadorships and having taught at the Delhi School of Economics along the way. He is also the only President who had been a university vice-chancellor immediately before entering electoral politics.

Compound biographical stems like this one are decided by the least common clause, not the most familiar one. 'President of India' narrows nothing — every option held the office. 'Ambassador' cuts the list to two, since only Narayanan and Radhakrishnan ever served as one. 'Vice-chancellor' leaves the same two. The clause that decides is the pair of proper nouns: four capitals, and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Radhakrishnan's embassy was Moscow and his universities were Andhra and Banaras, and a date closes the matter — JNU opened in 1969, three years after the Act that created it and two years after Radhakrishnan left Rashtrapati Bhavan. Reading a stem this way, from the rarest attribute inward, is faster and safer than trying to recall a whole biography, and it works on every 'who is this person' question a state paper sets.

• K. R. Narayanan was Ambassador to Thailand (1967–69), Turkey (from 5 March 1973 to 1975), China (7 July 1976 to 11 November 1978) and the United States (1980–84)
• He was Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University from 3 January 1979 to 14 October 1980, between the Beijing and Washington postings
• He sat in the Lok Sabha for Ottapalam in Kerala from 31 December 1984 to 26 July 1992, was Vice-President of India from 1992 to 1997 and President from 1997 to 2002 — the first Dalit to hold the office
• He studied at the London School of Economics under Harold Laski, whose letter of introduction to Nehru led to his entry into the Indian Foreign Service; Nehru is quoted as calling him the best diplomat in the country
• S. Radhakrishnan, the closest match among the distractors, was Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1949–52) and Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University (1931–36) and Banaras Hindu University (1939–48)
• Jawaharlal Nehru University was created by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Act, 1966 and established on 22 April 1969

• Picking Radhakrishnan because 'ambassador and vice-chancellor' fits — his embassy was Moscow and his universities Andhra and Banaras, and JNU did not exist during his presidency
• Assuming an ambassadorship implies a career diplomat; several Indian ambassadors to Washington and Moscow have been politicians or scholars sent on political appointment
• Reading 'Jawahar Lal University' as a different institution — it is the paper's own spelling of Jawaharlal Nehru University

BPSC builds one long sentence out of four or five career facts and asks the candidate to find the single person they all fit, which rewards knowing the outline of a life rather than a single headline. UPSC breaks the same material into verifiable propositions — who has held the office of Vice-President, which book belongs to which President — where each item is independently checkable and a single wrong pairing sinks the answer.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who was the first Indian Ambassador posted to Beijing after diplomatic relations with China were restored at ambassadorial level in 1976, and later became President of India ?

  • (a)K. R. Narayanan
  • (b)Natwar Singh
  • (c)Gopalaswami Parthasarathi
  • (d)S. Radhakrishnan

  Answer(a) K. R. Narayanan — Ambassador to China from July 1976 to November 1978, later Vice-President and then President of India.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  S. Radhakrishnan served as Vice-Chancellor of which of the following universities ?

  • (a)Jawaharlal Nehru University
  • (b)Banaras Hindu University
  • (c)Aligarh Muslim University
  • (d)University of Delhi

  Answer(b) Banaras Hindu University — from 1939 to 1948, after Andhra University from 1931 to 1936; JNU was established only in 1969.