BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 67 of 142

Correct — A, Food and agriculture. The Interim Government took office on 2 September 1946, when the Viceroy's Executive Council was converted into a council of ministers with Jawaharlal Nehru as its Vice-President, holding the powers of a prime minister. The portfolios of that Council are on the record and they leave no room for doubt: Vallabhbhai Patel held the Department of Home Affairs together with Information and Broadcasting; Baldev Singh held Defence; C. Rajagopalachari held Education and Arts; Asaf Ali held Railways and Transport; Jagjivan Ram held Labour; John Matthai held Industries and Supplies; and Rajendra Prasad headed the Department of Food and Agriculture. The assignment was a serious one rather than a courtesy — India was in the aftermath of the Bengal famine of 1943 and food procurement and rationing were the most politically dangerous work in the government. There is external corroboration worth knowing about, though it is not this paper's key, because BPSC published no key for this edition: the Union Public Service Commission asked a near-identical question in its 2006 prelims — 'Which portfolio was held by Dr. Rajendra Prasad in the Interim Government formed in the year 1946?' — and its published answer names Food and Agriculture. The letters differ, since BPSC reorders options, but the text of the answer is the same, and a second commission having published it makes this one of the better-supported items on a paper that has no key of its own.

• (b)Defense — Defence went to Baldev Singh, the Sikh leader from Punjab, who kept the portfolio into the first Nehru ministry after independence and signed for India at the partition of the armed forces. It is a tempting choice because Rajendra Prasad was among the most senior Congressmen in the Council, and seniority is assumed to track the weightiest portfolio — but Defence was in a Commander-in-Chief's shadow in 1946 and was allotted on other considerations.
• (c)Home — Home Affairs, together with Information and Broadcasting, went to Vallabhbhai Patel, who held what was described as the second-most powerful position in the Council after Nehru's. Patel carried Home into independence and used it to integrate the princely states; it is the one portfolio of the Interim Government that is never in doubt, which is what makes it a good decoy.
• (d)None of the above — The escape fails because the first option is exactly right. It would be available only if Rajendra Prasad had held some portfolio outside the list — Education, say, or Railways — and he did not. Note that even the UPSC version of this question in 2006 offered 'None' as its fourth option, and it was not the answer there either.

The Interim Government was the bridge between the Raj and independence. It was formed on 2 September 1946 out of the newly elected Constituent Assembly, following the Cabinet Mission's proposals and the elections of 1946, and it served until 15 August 1947. Constitutionally it was still the Viceroy's Executive Council — the Viceroy remained its formal head — but in practice it became a cabinet of Indians, with Nehru as Vice-President exercising prime ministerial authority. The All-India Muslim League stayed out at first and joined only on 26 October 1946, taking five places, with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance Member, from which position he obstructed the Congress ministers' proposals across departments. That experience of a divided executive did as much as any argument to persuade Congress leaders that a united India with the League inside the government would be unworkable. For Bihar the government matters for a second reason: Rajendra Prasad, born at Ziradei in Siwan district, went from this Council to the presidency of the Constituent Assembly and then, on 26 January 1950, to become the first President of India, an office he held for two full terms.

The reliable way to answer any Interim Government question is to memorise the four portfolios that anchor the list — Nehru External Affairs, Patel Home, Baldev Singh Defence, Liaquat Ali Khan Finance from October 1946 — and then reason about the rest. Two of this question's options are anchors already taken, which by itself leaves only Food and Agriculture among the named choices. The wider lesson is that seniority did not track portfolio weight in 1946: Rajendra Prasad was as senior as anyone in the Congress and took a department concerned with rationing and procurement, because in the years after the Bengal famine of 1943 that was where the government's real emergency lay. It is also worth being explicit about what the UPSC parallel does and does not prove. It shows that a public service commission has published this attribution and stood behind it, which is genuine external evidence for the fact. It says nothing about which letter BPSC intended, because BPSC printed its options in a different order and released no key.

• The Interim Government was formed on 2 September 1946 from the newly elected Constituent Assembly and served until 15 August 1947; Jawaharlal Nehru was Vice-President of the Viceroy's Executive Council with the powers of a prime minister.
• Portfolio allocation: Patel — Home Affairs plus Information and Broadcasting; Baldev Singh — Defence; C. Rajagopalachari — Education and Arts; Asaf Ali — Railways and Transport; Jagjivan Ram — Labour; John Matthai — Industries and Supplies; Rajendra Prasad — Food and Agriculture.
• The All-India Muslim League refused to join at the outset and entered only on 26 October 1946, with Liaquat Ali Khan taking the Finance portfolio.
• UPSC's 2006 prelims asked which portfolio Rajendra Prasad held in the Interim Government and published 'Food and Agriculture' as the answer — external evidence for the fact, not a key for this paper.
• Rajendra Prasad, born at Ziradei in Siwan district of Bihar, went on to preside over the Constituent Assembly and became the first President of India on 26 January 1950, serving two terms.

• Assigning the heaviest portfolio to the most senior leader. Rajendra Prasad was as senior as any Congressman in the Council and took Food and Agriculture; Defence went to Baldev Singh.
• Confusing the Interim Government of 1946 with the first Nehru ministry of 1947. Several portfolios changed hands at independence, and Liaquat Ali Khan's Finance department disappears from the Indian cabinet altogether.
• Treating a UPSC key as this Commission's key. It is corroboration for the historical fact; the option letter never transfers, because BPSC prints its options in its own order.

BPSC asks the transfer-of-power period through the people, and especially through Bihar's people, so Rajendra Prasad recurs across editions in different frames — his portfolio here, his standing among Bihar's leaders elsewhere. UPSC has asked this same portfolio question outright in 2006, and otherwise prefers the constitutional machinery of 1946-47 to the personalities inside it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who held the Defence portfolio in the Interim Government formed on 2 September 1946 ?

  • (a)Vallabhbhai Patel
  • (b)Baldev Singh
  • (c)Asaf Ali
  • (d)John Matthai

  Answer(b) Baldev Singh — the Sikh leader who kept Defence into the first Nehru ministry after independence. Patel held Home, Asaf Ali Railways and Transport, and Matthai Industries and Supplies.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The All-India Muslim League joined the Interim Government in October 1946, with Liaquat Ali Khan taking which portfolio ?

  • (a)Home
  • (b)Defence
  • (c)Finance
  • (d)External Affairs

  Answer(c) Finance — from which he was able to scrutinise and obstruct the proposals of every other department, an experience that hardened Congress opinion against a shared executive.